Don't You Worry Child
by jhm64892
Summary: It was just Samantha and her mother against the world, the each looking after the other in any way they knew how. So when her mother dies and she is left to live with her father, Tony Stark, who she has never met in her life before Samantha is distraught. How will she deal with having a superhero for a father? And what will happen when one Captain America turns up?
1. Don't Let Me Be Lonely

Samantha Montgomery arrived at the front door to Tony Stark's mansion, still wearing the black knee-length floral lace dress with its exposed zipper that she'd worn for her mother's funeral that very day, her mother's lawyer, a blonde haired, very tan woman in her late 20s named Bridget Stephens, stood at her side. Samantha took in a quick yet deep breath as she prepared herself, prepared to change the life of the man who owned the house, the man who was, biologically, her father and he didn't even know it yet. Eventually, she brought herself to knock three times in quick succession on the door, not having noticed the electronic doorbell on the wall beside her. She brushed away a stray curl of her chocolate brown hair as she waited for someone to answer the large, imposing door that stood in front of her.

A slender, strawberry blonde woman answered the door and, for a second, Samantha was sure that Bridget had driven her to the wrong house, little did she know Bridget thought that she had done just that "Sorry, I think I've got the wrong address; I'm looking for Tony Stark," Bridget announced, a slight hint of hesitation in her voice which Samantha had never known to appear.

"No you've got the right house; I'm Pepper Potts, Tony's girlfriend," the woman announced and Samantha had to maintain the huff she knew would appear 'Great someone who is going to try and replace my mother just what I needed,' the brunette thought to herself sarcastically as she continued to stand in the doorway "Who exactly are you?" Pepper asked, what seemed like a forced smile plastered on her face.

Now it was Samantha's turn to speak "I… My name is Samantha Montgomery my mother is… was Audrey Montgomery. I-Apparently I am Tony's daughter," the teenager managed, tears welling up in her green eyes.

"You'd better come in," Pepper said kindly, a sympathetic smile appearing on her face. Pepper led Samantha and Bridget through the doorway and into the living room.

The brunette had to quickly catch her breath as she saw the panoramic sea views and beige walls. Pepper continued leading them through to the kitchen as she called for Tony and asked whether Samantha or Bridget would like anything to drink, both refused.

Tony Stark appeared from downstairs, a piece of the Mark III still attached to his arm "What is it Pep?" he asked with an adolescent sigh and eye roll.

"Umm… I think I'd best allow our guests to explain,"

Bridget stood up from the seat she'd sat down and began to talk, to say the speech she'd probably been attempting to practice since discovering how seriously ill Audrey was "I'm Bridget Stephens, I was Audrey Montgomery's lawyer before she passed. Apparently I'm supposed to give you this letter," the lawyer stated as she sifted through her briefcase until she found the cream envelope which sealed the fates of both Tony Stark and Samantha Montgomery and also, to an extent, Pepper Potts. She handed the letter to Tony who tore it open and began to read.

_Dear Tony, _

_If you are reading this then I'm most likely dead or in a coma which I'll never come out of. I know it's been a while, about 17 years to be precise, since we last spoke and I know that we really didn't part on the best of terms but there is something I would like you to do for me._

_At the moment you're most likely sitting with two women in front of you, the eldest one, the one with the blonde hair, is Bridget Stephens my lawyer and one of my best friends. The other is Samantha Maria Jane Montgomery, our daughter. I know I never told you about her and that was purely my fault, you were all ready to marry me when we were in college and I turned you down. Not because I didn't love you or because I cheated or even because we couldn't work together but just because I got this feeling that you were meant to be with someone else and now, seeing the press articles about you lately – I'm not stalking you or anything I just see things in the news every so often – I know that you and Pepper are meant to be together but that's beside the point I was going to make, you remember how I like to ramble thank god I didn't end up a lawyer hey? Back to Samantha, I gave her the middle name of Maria after your mom just because I suppose that if Maria Stark hadn't existed then she and Howard wouldn't have adopted you and I wouldn't have Samantha would I? She's sixteen; her favourite colour is blue although she wears a lot of black and she loves music, particularly country and rock. She loves old movies, her favourites are directed by Alfred Hitchcock, just don't let her watch Psycho late at night because she never sleeps if she does that. I know this will be difficult for you, I'm not sure how much things have changed but I remember that you always worried that you'd be a bad father because of how your dad wasn't around all that often but could you just do me a favour and look after her? Please, for me?_

_Yours, forever and sincerely,_

_Audrey_

Tony looked up from the piece of paper, hot, salty tears stinging his eyes as he allowed himself to focus on Samantha. She had his hair and square jawline but her mother's blue, narrow eyes and full lips, she truly was beautiful. He ran his hand through his hair, the weight of the position Audrey had placed him in landing on his shoulders, and said "Pepper can you set up one of the guest rooms?" Pepper rushed off to do as requested and Tony turned to Bridget, asking the next question that came to mind "Do I need to sign anything to say that I'm taking Samantha into my care?"

"California law requires that Audrey sign documentation regarding it and I've got a copy of her will which also places Samantha into your care but yes there are a couple of legal independent adoption papers you'll have to sign I'll draw them up when I get back to the office," Bridget replied carefully, her tone back to that of a lawyer, a calm look in her eyes.

Tony turned to Samantha and gently asked her "Do you have any things with you?"

"We came straight from the funeral, so I've only got what I'm wearing and whatever's in my handbag," she explained, sadness the only thing in her eyes and voice as she said it.

"I'll see if we've got anything that'll fit you for tonight and tomorrow we can go about packing up your mother's place and getting your stuff,"

_She was behind the wheel of the car, her first driving lesson in over two months and she was nervous. Fair play to her for being nervous seeing as she was new to the practise and already she hadn't had the chance to go out and drive in and age. She looked to her mother in the passenger seat next to her and the older woman nodded, her blonde hair scraped up into a bun for the first time in what felt like an age to the young brunette who sat next to her. She pulled out of the driveway they shared with about ten other people and began to drive along the main road, a slight smile appearing on the corners of her mouth as she got slightly more comfortable. She was about to turn at the traffic lights, it was a green light, she could turn but out of nowhere a huge, bulky truck drove into the side of the car, as a monument to the grey life the two women in the car would lead for the next couple of months. _

Samantha woke with a start, a strangled scream escaping her mouth as she did, her ever recurring nightmare having returned to her once more during the night. She watched, burning hot saline tasting tears leaking from her eyes, as Tony rushed into the room, panic emblazoned across his face "What's wrong?" he asked as kindly as he knew how.

"Nightmare," she said with a sigh of resignation as she violently swatted away her tears.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"It-it was a car accident I was in with mom a couple of months ago. She was teaching me to drive, we hadn't done the whole driving lesson in a while because her work had gotten so busy that she was having to work weekends and late at night. Anyway she was teaching me to drive and there was this-this set of traffic lights and I turned on the green light and this truck just came out of nowhere. I was lucky I suppose, I got out relatively unscathed, you know just a cut that needed a couple of stitches but mom, my god she had so many injuries, they said she had internal bleeding, a broken leg, her-her head had this-this big massive cut. The doctors-they said they could fix it and they did-or I thought they did but a couple of weeks after the surgery one-one of the incision sites got… it got infected and… and th-they said there… there was nothing they could do because… because the infection was too far gone," she explained, the tears continuing to stream down her cheeks "I killed my mom didn't I?" she exclaimed suddenly,

"No-no you didn't, who did the cops blame?"

"The police report said that investigations were inconclusive and with mom in hospital we couldn't afford a second investigation. I had to sell the car, my record player and all of my records to afford all of the bills," she said, her voice wasn't so much filled with regret but guilt.

Tony moved closer to the bed "I can get you new ones,"

"You don't have to,"

"No but I want to. I want you to feel as comfortable as possible here so if you want to rearrange the furniture or repaint the room whatever you want I'll help you do it," he told her honestly and she couldn't help but hug him.


	2. I Miss You

The next morning, Tony, Pepper and Samantha went round to Audrey and Samantha's apartment. Tony found himself shocked by how bare it all was. Everything was beige and black, he'd expected hints of both colours, he'd expected a rainbow of blues and greens, the walls were lined with bookshelves filled with both classics and contemporary novels, he saw the small TV in the corner of the room and the cabinet it sat on was loaded with DVDs of TV series, such as Bewitched – the main character, he guessed, was whom Samantha had been named after – and films.

He watched as his daughter immediately grabbed a box and began to fill it with books from the living room bookshelf. She grabbed copies of Jane Eyre, The Catcher in the Rye and To Kill A Mockingbird and carefully placed them in the box while corny Mills & Boon romance books were left alone, not even straightened from their now slanted position on the shelves.

"Samantha? What do you want to do with the books you're leaving on the shelves?" Pepper asked as gently as possible.

"Throw 'em," was the reply as the young brunette danced across to the cabinet containing the DVDs, placing Gone With the Wind, Breakfast at Tiffanys, Guys and Dolls and Forrest Gump (along with a few others) into the box.

Soon enough, the living room was finished with and after the announcement that any kitchen appliances should be put into storage, Samantha walked down the darkened hallway and into her mother's bedroom.

Samantha had been in her mother's bedroom for an hour and Tony began to worry. He walked the same pathway down the hallway and turned into the room only to see his daughter clutching onto one of her mother's crisp white blouses as though her life depended on it. She held it close to her face "You okay?" he asked sitting down beside her.

Silent tears were her only response.

"Do you know how I reacted to my parents' death?" he asked and watched as she shook her head, the tears continuing to flow from her eyes. "I was sixteen and I had just gotten back from a date with your mom. I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognise. I picked it up and the guy on the other end said he worked at a hospital in Malibu. He said he was calling because my parents had been in a car accident and that my dad had died at the scene and mom was in surgery. I sat by the phone for another hour before I got the phone call that said my mom had died during surgery. I hung up, ran down to the nearest liquor store and bought the oldest bottle of scotch they had. I don't know how I got home that night but I remember waking up the next morning on my couch, the scotch bottle empty and your mom stood in the kitchen making breakfast. She was the only person who really tried to help me,"

"What happened between the two of you?"

"What exactly did your mom tell you?" Tony asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"She said that you were a good man but she thought that you weren't as well suited to each other as you'd both once thought," was the young brunette's explanation.

"After I found out that I'd inherited Stark Industries, I was flying back and forth between Malibu and Boston a lot. Anyway one day I flew back into Boston and I had this big night planned, dinner at this amazing restaurant and I was going to ask her to marry me and I did do that but she turned me down, she said she couldn't trust me to be faithful, like she had this sort of premonition that I'd find someone more well-suited to me," he explained gently.

"She always had a song in her head, she always used to sing this song from the 60s when you were upset or frustrated," he said absentmindedly.

"It was Hey Jude by The Beatles wasn't it? She always liked the bit that went Na, Na, Na, Na the best," Samantha finished before wiping away a few stray tears "I… I just… I don't know whether I can pack up her room you know? I mean this this place it's practically her in a room, the pictures are ones she took, the clothes are ones that she bought, the bed is the same one that she used to let me sleep in with her when I was little and had a nightmare. D-did you feel like this when your parents died?"

"Sort of, I mean I had an idea as to what I wanted to keep, that made it easier, I suppose, but it was still difficult. People had started to move stuff but I decided to clean their room out. I didn't want the movers to see some of the stuff in there," he explained before making a suggestion "If you want, we could leave your mom's room for now, you know until your more… I don't know… more well-prepared to deal with it?"

"You wouldn't mind coming back another day?"

"Of course not, now how about you go and grab the things you want from your room and we can sort out the rest later,"

Tony followed Samantha across the hallway into her room; he noticed the posters of AC/DC, Johnny Cash, Guns 'N' Roses, Miranda Lambert, U2 and Carrie Underwood then he couldn't help but realize how dark the room was, shades of purple covering the walls and an ink black covered the carpet. He watched from the doorway as she danced across the room, pulling out clothes and shoving them in a box.

He didn't become aware of Pepper's whereabouts until he heard her whisper "How's she doing?"

"Better… I think," he replied after a few moments, his voice low so as not to disturb Samantha's concentration on the task. Just then his celphone rang and he left the room to answer it. He looked at the caller ID and, noticing it was Steve Rogers, answered it "Capsicle, this better be good," Tony said in his usual snarky, sarcastic tone.

"I can't tell you much over the phone but I'm assuming you know what's been going on at S.H.I.E.L.D?" was the cryptic reply.

"Yeah, you and Nat are practically fugitives, Hill's disappeared off the face of the earth, Fury's dead and some old guy took over, I do keep a track of things going on at the companies I design tech for. Why?"

"Like I said, I can't really explain over the phone but there are a couple of things you should know regarding Project Insight. Mind if I borrow a jet to get over to you?"

"Sure just don't crash it or anything," Tony joked but heard no laughter in response "And don't play any Mahjong while you fly it," he joked again, but once again laughter was not there.

"You might want to get Banner and Barton in on this,"

"Capsicle, their both in your area, you get them,"

"Fine,"


	3. Silver Lining

**_A/N - I feel like I should tell you guys where abouts in the Avengers story this fanfiction is set. It takes place around the time of The Winter Soldier which will play a major part in the next couple of chapters. Thanks to all of the reviewers and followers as well._**

* * *

As they drove home from Audrey's apartment, Tony still felt confused by the situation he'd been placed in. He had a daughter, a daughter who was beautiful and healthy and perfect in every way he could see. He turned around to see her staring out of the window with her chin resting on the palm of her hand, looking at the trees and houses as they passed them by at what seemed like lightning speed _'She looks sad,'_ he thought to himself before correcting the thought _'Of course she's sad, her mother just died,' _He turned to face the road as Pepper drove through the streets of Los Angeles. He wanted to make Samantha happy, to see a smile on her face, to see her eyes light up with glee at something, anything and yet he had no idea how he would make that happen.

Numbers started to fly around Tony's head: 17, the number of years since the night he'd last seen Audrey, the number of years since she'd broken his heart; 10, the number of years he'd known Pepper; 9, the number of years since Pepper had started to heal the wounds Audrey had inflicted upon him and 16, Samantha's age and that age meant 16 birthdays, 16 Christmases all of which he'd forgotten and that made him feel guilty, probably just as guilty as she felt about her mother's death – he had based that on the conversation they'd had the previous night. He thought about his break up with Audrey and how he could have stopped her from leaving that night, how he could have – should have – been there for both Audrey and Samantha.

Eventually, his mind drifted off to what he should have been thinking about: The conversation he'd not long finished with Steve Rogers. The young/old man was a fugitive, along with Natasha Romanov and somehow it was all linked to Project Insight and Nick Fury's death. He had the idea that Rogers wasn't happy about Project Insight and Tony wasn't either if he was being honest with himself, he'd thought it stupid to keep a track of ordinary people _just in case they turned out to be terrorists. _It broke every law that the United States based itself on. He hadn't wanted to work on the project at all but he'd learnt a while ago not to argue with Fury or anything the one-eyed man wanted him to do. He didn't necessarily like it, like he'd said in New York before he knew about the whole thing with Loki Tony Stark didn't like to be handed things, but if it involved anything Nick Fury wanted he did it, not because he particularly liked the guy or because they were friends but because the man was director of an agency that very few people knew about and he did allow him to keep his Iron Man suits. Now that Fury was gone, Tony was unsure as to where he stood on those.

"What's up?" Pepper asked as she turned left at a junction, breaking Tony free from his thoughts.

"Nothing, just thinking," he replied, telling his girlfriend a half-lie, he had been thinking but it wasn't about nothing.

"That's dangerous, last time you thought like that you made me a CEO, what are you thinking about?" she queried, a slightly humorous sound to her voice.

"It's nothing, I'll tell you about it later,"

"It doesn't seem like nothing," the strawberry blonde pried.

"I said we'll talk about it later," he snapped just loudly enough to make Samantha turn her head away from the window.

"Okay," Pepper said with a shrug, she sounded slightly offended but neither person seemed to care.

"Hey do you mind if we stop off at Burger King? I'm starving and a good old-fashioned American cheeseburger sounds heavenly at the moment," Samantha piped up after five minutes of considerable silence.

"Oh my god you two are so alike," Pepper said with a slight giggle.

"What do you mean?" Samantha asked curiously.

"Well, after your father got off the plane and got in the car after the whole… incident…. In Afghanistan, the first thing he said was that he didn't want to go to the hospital, he wanted to get an 'American cheeseburger' and to hold a press conference, we got to Burger King and he ordered like eight cheeseburgers," Pepper explained.

"You make it sound like it's a bad thing," Tony said, feigning offence.

"Well you did eat all eight of them during the twenty minute drive from Burger King to the press conference,"

* * *

When they arrived home, after grabbing Burger King, Samantha rushed off to what was now her bedroom and dropped three boxes of stuff and her guitar in her room and rushed out to the living room. She heard talking to what seemed to be air and the 'air' replying with the words 'Yes sir,'

"Holy mother of god, the air talks in this place?" she exclaimed out of sheer shock.

"Actually this is Jarvis, he pretty much does everything around here, like housekeeping and a couple of other things," Tony explained to her, turning around to see her standing rigid in place.

"Okay," she managed after a couple of moments.

Pepper had been stood in the kitchen during the entire exchange and shouted "It takes a bit of getting used to," before walking towards both of them "What does everyone want for dinner?"

"Uhh Pepper about dinner…" Tony said nervously.

"Tony what did you do?" came Pepper's reproachful reply whilst Samantha had to prevent herself from giggling.

"Ummm Steve, Nat, Bruce and Clint might be turning up," he said, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"So… takeout?" Samantha suggested.

"Yup you two are definitely related," Pepper joked.

"Like you needed any more proof," Tony joked before Samantha made the decision to retreat to her room.

Once in the bedroom that had been claimed as hers, Samantha decided to ask Jarvis a question "Jarvis do you have any files on these friends of Tony's that'll be round for dinner?"

"I certainly do Miss Montgomery, may I ask why?"

"I would like for you to bring them up so that I'm at least a little prepared for this dinner thing," she explained.

"Okay Miss Montgomery,"

"And please can you call me Samantha, my mom was Miss Montgomery," she said politely but with a hint of sadness in her tone.

"Certainly Samantha,"

The files were brought up around her and Samantha began to stare at what had appeared around her before questioning "Hey Jarvis, how do I see what is in these files?"

"Like you would an iPhone or other touchscreen phone,"

"Okay thank you," she said and began to read the files in alphabetical order beginning with Dr Bruce Banner.

**Name: **Dr Bruce Banner

**Occupation: **Doctor/Scientist

**Other Names: **The Hulk, Brucie, Banner

**Nationality: **American

**Age: **39

**Description: **After a gamma radiation experiment went wrong, Dr Banner was left with a mutation which turns him into a giant, green, supposedly uncontrollable rage monster known as the Hulk. He chooses to live in seclusion and until he was recruited for the Avengers Initiative by Nick Fury lived in India. Now lives in Stark Tower in New York City, working on chemistry stuff.

Samantha tried to flick past the page but found herself unable to, as she began to get frustrated Jarvis decided to tell her what was going on "I'm afraid that you don't have enough security clearance to see past the executive summaries of the files Samantha,"

"Okay thank you Jarvis," Samantha said flicking Bruce Banner's file away and focussing on that of Clint Barton. "Okay Mr Barton what have you got for me?"

**Name: **Clint Barton

**Occupation: **Spy

**Other Names: **Hawkeye, Legolas, Barton

**Nationality: **American

**Age: **33

**Description: **Apparently, the greatest living marksman on Earth and one of S.H.I. 's most important agents. Uses a recurve bow and a set of specialised arrows to defeat any enemies, also great at hand to hand combat. When not on S.H.I.E.L.D. missions he resides in Washington D.C.

"Okay… Jarvis what is S.H. .D?" Samantha asked confused.

"It is a top secret global organisation,"

"Thanks," she said before moving onto the file of one Steve Rogers. He looked familiar to her and she couldn't quite explain why.

**Name: **Steven Rogers

**Occupation: **Superhero

**Other Names: **Captain America, Steve, Capsicle, Captain Crunch, Buck Rogers

**Nationality: **American

**Age: **Looks like he's 24 but is actually in his 80s

**Description:** Was turned into the superhero he is in the secret super soldier programme run by the military during World War 2. Crashed a plane into the Arctic Ocean and remained frozen until 2011. Now has to deal with the entirety of the last 70 or so years. Works freelance for S.H.I.E.L.D.

Finally, Samantha moved onto the file of Natasha Romanov, the first thing she noticed was that she was uncommonly pretty.

**Name: **Natasha Romanov

**Occupation: **Spy

**Other Names: **Agent Romanov, Natalia, Nat, Black Widow, Red

**Nationality: **Originally Russian but has defected to America

**Age: **28

**Description: **One of the world's greatest spies and assassins, used to kill men whilst dating them, now sticks to just killing them before that is even an option. Spends most of her time, when she's not on missions, working on readjusting Steve Rogers to 21st Century life and probably flirting with Clint Barton.

After finishing off reading the executive summaries of the files, Samantha closed her eyes and lay on the bed "Great so I'm going to be meeting with another four of the Avengers, that's fun," she told herself sarcastically. She heard footsteps coming down the hallway and told Jarvis to close the files. She heard a knock on the door and told whoever it was to come in. It was Pepper "Hey," Samantha said.

"I was just coming in to tell you that Chinese is on its way, I hope that's okay,"

"Chinese sounds great," Samantha said before sitting up quickly "What time is dinner?"

"Should be about ten or twenty minutes away,"

"Okay thanks," Samantha said and watched as her father's strawberry blonde girlfriend left the room and continued down the hallway. For whatever reason, Samantha wasn't sure why, but she started to think about her ex-boyfriend, Matthew. She thought that he was a sweet, kind guy but it turned out that he was a total asshole. She walked over to her guitar and began to play one of her new favourite songs, singing along to it as it went.

_Woke up on the wrong side of rock bottom  
Throw a lot of pennies in a well  
That done run dry  
Light up and smoke 'em if you have 'em  
But you just ain't got 'em  
Yeah ain't we always looking  
For a bluer sky_

If you're ever gonna find a silver lining  
It's gotta be a cloudy day  
It's gotta be a cloudy day  
If you wanna fill your bottle up with lightning  
You're gonna have to stand in the rain  
You're gonna have to stand in the rain

Hoo hoo hoooo

_Hoo hoo hoooo_

_Hoo hoo hoooo  
Hoo_

If lemonade keeps turning into lemons  
And you wear your heart on a ripped  
Unraveled sleeve  
Been run through the wringer  
And pushed on to your limit  
Say you're just unlucky  
But luck ain't what you need

'Cause if you're ever gonna find  
A four leaf clover  
You gotta get a little dirt on your hands  
You gotta get a little dirt on your hands  
And if you wanna find a head  
That fits your shoulder  
You're gonna have to go to the dance  
You're gonna have to go to the dance

If you wanna find the honey  
You can't be scared of the bees  
And if you wanna see the forest  
You're gonna have to look past trees

If you're ever gonna find a silver lining  
It's gotta be a cloudy day  
It's gotta be a cloudy day  
If you wanna fill your bottle up with lightning  
You're gonna have to stand in the rain  
You're gonna have to stand in the rain

Hoo hoo hoooo

_Hoo hoo hoooo_

_Hoo hoo hoooo  
Hoo_

Hoo hoo hoooo

_Hoo hoo hoooo_

_Hoo hoo hoooo  
Hoo, hoo, hoo_

She hadn't realised that Tony was stood in the doorway until he said "It's good did you write that?"

"No, I'm no good at songwriting unfortunately but that song is one of my favourites," Samantha replied with a sigh.

"Singing it about anything in particular?"

"There was a guy, Matthew, he broke up with me a couple of weeks before Mom died, said he couldn't handle it. _My _mom was in the hospital and _he _couldn't handle it I mean how sucky an excuse is that?"

"A pretty stupid one,"

"I should have known he was going to break up with me, it should have been obvious, he'd tried to bring it up a couple of weeks before but I blocked it, told him to leave it be, then he took me out to a public place and got me excited for my first date with him since the accident, took me to the goddamn Ivy and broke up with me in front of all those people. When Mom died I was left alone for the first night and I decided to go out to a couple of bars and got totally drunk and called him, he answered by accident and I heard him. He and one of the cows who went to my school were having sex and I could hear it," she explained before bursting into tears.

Tony couldn't watch his daughter in tears without doing anything so he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her in a protective hug. After a while she decided to break free of the hug and afterwards said "You're a really good dad. At least I think so. I've never had one before but from what I can see you're doing pretty well so far,"

"Yes! Another thing I'm good at!" he exclaimed happily and Samantha couldn't help but laugh at the statement "You're not too bad at being a daughter either," he said with a kind smile.

"Not too bad? I'm freaking awesome!" she exclaimed with a laugh.

* * *

Once Natasha, Bruce, Steve and Clint arrived, Samantha decided to re-enter the living room and had to hold back laughter when she saw the faces of her father's friends/co-workers.

"Uh Tony why is there a teenage girl in the living room?" Clint asked confusedly.

"She's my daughter, Samantha meet The Avengers bar one, although I'm pretty sure you know who they are based on the fact that you went through the front pages of their files." Tony announced with a big, beaming smile.

Samantha blushed slightly before saying "Jarvis said it was fine and I couldn't be bothered to hack my way past the executive summaries, you make it sound like it was difficult, all I had to do was ask,"

"How is that even possible?" was Natasha's first worded reaction.

"Well Natasha when a man and a woman love each other very much they have sex and by the chances of probability and some biology make a baby," Samantha said snarkily.

"Seriously is that Stark sarcasm genetic or something?" Clint asked.

"No Howard was never sarcastic," Steve stated.

"Wait if you're Stark's daughter how come we haven't heard of you yet?" Natasha asked suspiciously.

"Well he just found out about me yesterday and that was because my mom died. Plus surely S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps things from The Avengers Red," Samantha replied with a smirk.

"The smirk's genetic too?" Clint asked, shocked.

"Howard didn't have that one either," Steve responded.

"Did you hear that? She just called me Red! Stark I swear to god you'd best tell her not to call me that if she wants to keep her life," Natasha started.

"Don't call her Red, it annoys her," Tony warned.

"All the more fun for me,"

"No seriously she's a-"he started but Samantha finished it off.

"Ninja assassin with the abilities to use a large number of weapons I know. So… food?" Samantha said as she noticed Pepper serving the Chinese on the table.

* * *

After dinner and desert and a good conversation with all of the Avengers in the house, Samantha had gone to sleep and Pepper had made a similar decision. "So what's going on at S.H.I.E.L.D. that's so top secret that we have to meet here in this cloak and dagger sort of way?" Bruce asked.

"Fury isn't dead," Natasha announced "Project Insight is probably the worst thing you've come up with Stark, we've got to destroy it somehow before it's used against us,"

"And Alexander Pierce or as Stark will probably call him the old guy who took over is working for HYDRA," Steve continued "Oh and Nat and I are fugitives,"

Tony looked at Clint who was looking at Natasha with genuine worry on his face "Right so this is a strategy meeting I'm assuming," Tony said.

"You need to destroy it from the inside," they all heard and Tony could have sworn it was Samantha "What? You guys really aren't being quiet at all and I couldn't sleep so I figure if the whole house is going to hear it the whole house should get involved in it," everyone stared at the young brunette for a good minute or so.

"Okay so how do you suppose we go about this whole destroy it from the inside thing then?" Natasha asked, eyes narrowed.

"Steve needs to fake his own death, they're assuming he's the reason that you ran off, they've probably painted some slightly screwed up love affair and sold it to the agents who are after you, so faking your death is probably your best bet Captain. Then one of you needs to get on Pierce's good side it can't be Red because they're going to try and interrogate her for info and Pierce is going to be too careful to even go near Bruce so Clint I'm afraid it's going to have to be you. In the meantime, Dad you're going to have to help me hack into S.H.I.E.L.D's mainframe and shut down Project Insight for long enough to make it easier for the Captain to disappear. Bruce you need to lay low so that you don't get into trouble… for now just maintain phone contact with at least one of the others,"

"She's good. You ever thought about working for S.H.I.E.L.D?" Clint asked.

"Actually I wanted to work in crisis management," Samantha stated "But you've not let me finish, Clint once you're inside you need to recruit a couple of agents onto your side but make it completely covert. Once the computers are shut down, you'll be able to get more. Once you've got enough for a sort of revolution type thing wait for a day when Pierce's reputation would be on the line and sort of… revolt,"


	4. Blindsided

Tony and Samantha sat in front of a computer screen in the basement/lab of Tony's mansion. It had been a few days since the plan had been made with the other Avengers. Clint had 'infiltrated' S.H.I.E.L.D. and had started cosying up to Pierce. Steve was waiting for Project Insight to be hacked and temporarily shut down so that he could fake his death and Natasha was poised and ready to be taken in for interrogation.

Samantha typed a few digits and a message saying 'Project Insight Shutting Down' came across the screen "There we go, one secret global organisation hacked and one top secret, highly illegal project temporarily shut down," Samantha announced with a smirk. She grabbed the burner phone she'd bought the day before and dialled the number for Natasha Romanov's burner phone "We are a go," was all the teenager said after the other end of the line was picked up.

"After all of this we need to sort out a school for you," Tony said as she typed up the document which would act as a part of their cover.

"No need, I graduated from UCLA a couple of months ago. Did a double major in Law and Communications," she replied sounding slightly proud of herself.

A few moments of silence followed in which Tony did an awful lot of thinking. He didn't want to lose Samantha to HYDRA or S.H.I.E.L.D. or anyone else. Despite the fact that he already knew his daughter was intelligent and her strategies were pretty much foolproof yet sophisticated but her inner strength had been diminished greatly by the combination of Audrey's death and the break-up with Matthew and he worried about what an intense interrogation would do to her mental state "What happens if they don't believe the cover story?" he eventually asked.

"I'll go willingly and peacefully. If they interrogate me I'll stand my ground," she replied with a shrug "I'll be fine Dad," she continued almost as though she needed the reassurance as much as he did.

"Sir there are some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at the door," Jarvis announced in his typically polite manner.

"Send them in," Tony said with a sigh. He trudged up the stairs to see two agents in the hallway. "If you're here to take the suits, Fury already called dibs on them so they're going to Pierce once I'm done with them but you can take anything else," Tony said in his typical sarcastic tone.

"We're not here on matters regarding confiscation Mr Stark. I'm Agent Ward and this is Agent Skye. We've received intel that S.H.I.E.L.D's mainframe was hacked and the IP address was tracked to this location, mind if we take a look?" the male agent stated, showing his credentials, he was tall and slightly tanned with well-defined muscles and short, black hair. His partner was shorter and younger with long brown hair and was clearly of Asian descent.

"Dad, I think I've screwed up typing up that document," Samantha called as she climbed up the stairs "Who's this?" she asked innocently.

"This is Agent Ward and Agent Skye from S.H.I.E.L.D., agents this is my daughter Samantha," Tony introduced before quickly changing the subject "What's up with the computer?" he asked.

"I must have clicked on something but it's led me to this site for Project Insight. Was that the charity for blind people Pepper mentioned the other day?" Samantha asked, continuing her feigned innocence.

Ward looked to Skye and then back to the father and daughter "Excuse me, but did you say something about Project Insight?"

"Yeah. Oh my God I swear I am such a ditz when it comes to computers. Dad was getting me to type up the results of the test we were doing on the Mark 44 and I must have clicked on something weird to do with it because it came up with this thing saying 'Project Insight is shutting down'," she explained in a lie.

"Mind if I take a look?" Skye politely requested.

"Go for it, it's just downstairs, first door on the left," Tony said and Skye went down the stairs to take a look.

Samantha made her way to the kitchen saying "Do you want anything to drink Agent? Tea? Coffee? Water?" in the most hospitable tone she could possibly use.

"No thanks, you sure you two are related?" Ward asked, a jokey suspicious sound to his tone of voice.

"That's what my birth certificate and my mom's will say," she replied sweetly just as Skye came up the stairs.

"Story checks out," Skye whispered to her partner.

"Samantha would you mind coming with us to answer a couple of questions?" Ward asked to the shock of everyone in the room, including Skye.

"Is something wrong?"

"No we just want to ask a few routine questions,"

"Sure just let me grab my purse and shoes," she said politely immediately rushing off to her bedroom and dialling Steve's burner phone number "I have S.H.I.E.L.D agents in my dad's living room ready to pick me up and take me to wherever they plan on taking me," she said, a slight anger to her voice.

"That was quick which means –"

"Either we've got a mole of sorts, which I'm pretty sure we don't or they were expecting Dad to do something," she finished his sentence, in any other situation it would have been adorable but this was a serious matter.

"I'll see if I can speak to a friend of mine who still works for S.H.I.E.L.D. and see if she can get on the case, other than that there's nothing I can really do, you can warn Clint that you're coming in," he told her.

"Okay," Samantha said with a sigh of defeat. She picked up her relatively large handbag, zipped up her black leather high-heeled boots that matched her dark blue skinny jeans and black blouse and dialled Clint's phone number "They're taking me in, thought you'd want to know seeing as our plan seems to be failing," she said into the receiver and hung up the phone quickly. After that she walked confidently out into the living room and hugged Tony whispering "You're being watched, Legolas and Capsicle know," to him.

She'd been in the interrogation room for all of 30 minutes and already Samantha felt as though she might break cover at the hands of Agent 13 "I'll ask again. What do you know about Project Insight?" The agent asked, small stray blonde hairs escaping from her tight chignon as she slammed her palms onto the table in front of her.

"I've already told you I have no idea what you're going on about," Samantha responded.

"You can't tell me that you accidentally hacked into a government agency's mainframe and shut down one of their major projects and expect me to believe it,"

"I can if it's the truth," was the response which earned Samantha a hard slap. Samantha clutched onto her now reddening cheek, trying to hold back the threatening tears as Agent 13 fled from the room. When the blonde agent returned, she had two coffees in her hand and gave one to Samantha 'You've not gone and put some sort of truth serum in this have you? Or would you prefer to just continue to beat the answers you want out of me," the brunette told the older woman angrily.

"I know it might not look like it but I'm a friend of Captain Rogers. He told me to try and get on your case and I managed it. I'm sorry about the slap but my supervisor was watching us and I had to make it look realistic," Agent 13 explained to Samantha before taking a sip from the coffee "And there's no truth serum in there. Steve explained what's been going on and to be honest I think your plan would work,"

Samantha took a sip of the coffee and breathed in its bittersweet scent "Okay what do I do?" she asked carefully.

"Exactly what you've been doing, hold your ground and answer the questions," she said before tuning into her earpiece "I'm in the middle of an interrogation," she seemed to argue before saying "Okay fine," and running off.

Samantha had been waiting for a good 10 minutes after Agent 13 left the room when Clint ran into the interrogation room "What are you doing still here? You've got to get out now," he said to her firmly.

"Why? What's going on?" the young brunette asked completely oblivious to the fight going on outside of the walls that surrounded her.

"After Steve found out you'd been taken into custody, he and Natasha told Fury about the plan and enlisted another ally, Fury wasn't a big fan of how you're plan was working out so they deviated," Clint explained.

"How far did they deviate?" Samantha asked in a monotone voice with no expression on her face.

"Natasha pretended to be a member of the Security Council, Fury's killed Pierce and Steve and their new ally are currently rechipping the Project Insight helicarriers,"

"You mean the ones with the computers that got me here?" Samantha asked incredulously, she was starting to get pissed off and Clint could see it as he nodded. He went to grab her hand and unlock the handcuffs that had been placed over her wrists.

Just as they exited the door, Samantha took a passing agents gun and put Clint in a headlock, pointing the gun at his head "What are you doing?" he whispered through gritted teeth.

"Making sure you can't be held accountable if this all goes to crap," she whispered before changing her voice to one of anger "Now tell me how I get to a jet and you won't get hurt," she said.

As they rushed off, she felt a of hands on her neck, trying to crush her windpipe and she elbowed her assailant with the hand she was using to hold the gun, her neck hurt afterwards but she didn't care about the probable bruising that would occur. That was when she heard it, a loud bang and Samantha felt a sharp pain in her stomach as a bullet lodged its way in. "Dammit," she muttered to herself as she and Clint continued to hurry over to where the jets were.

There had been an awful lot more bullets that they'd had to dodge and a couple more fights, but Samantha and Clint found their way to the jet, picking up Agent 13 on their way. As they took off, they saw a helicarrier crashing into the Triskelion. Samantha started to feel slightly woozy and Agent 13 saw the amount of blood the brunette was losing from the bullet hole in her stomach "Barton she's losing a lot of blood,"

"Dammit Stark is going to kill me," Clint said as he set in co-ordinates for the nearest hospital and placed the plane on autopilot. He got out of his seat and went over to Samantha "Hey mini-Stark you're not allowed to close your eyes, got it?" he said and Samantha nodded slightly "I mean it otherwise your dad will murder me and I kind of have a couple of things I'd like to do before I die,"

"Like telling Natasha that you love her," Samantha suggested jokingly.

"How did you figure that?"

"You don't exactly… conceal it too well… she likes you too… though," the young brunette said as she struggled for breath. "Tell my dad… that he's a good dad… and… and that I want him to be happy," she told him just before they landed.

"No because you're going to tell him yourself," was the last thing she heard as she blacked out.


	5. Wake Me Up

Her eyelids were heavy as they fluttered open, she took in the white walls around her along with the white ceiling which had been completed with fluorescent lighting. She heard a familiar rhythmic beeping and almost immediately realised that, not for the first time in her life, she was in a hospital bed. She tried to sit up but felt a certain degree of discomfort that prevented it, instead she tried to move her right hand but found the weight of a head tried to prevent it. She looked at the owner of the head and noted that it was her father, carefully and slowly she slid the hand out from underneath her father's head, she watched as he slowly woke up and smiled at him as he lifted his head "Hey," was all she said, she noted that he looked as though worry had aged him and felt the need to ask "How long was I out because I swear you've aged,"

She heard a light female chuckle at her question and noted that Pepper sat on her other side "You've been out for about four days. The doctors decided to stick you in a coma after the surgery because you're dad noticed you thrashing about in your sleep and got worried," Pepper answered after breaking free of her laughter.

"How many federal laws did he almost break getting here?" Samantha asked jokingly.

"Would've been about three," Pepper explained.

After this conversation, Samantha felt herself being ambushed with a hug from her father "Dad… can't breathe," she tried as he held onto her tightly "If you're not careful you'll tear the stitches," she said which got her out of the hug.

"Swear to god you'd better not do that again,"

"Dad I can't guarantee I won't end up in another situation where a gun will be used on me," she argued.

"Fine just promise me that you won't do what you did,"

"Fine I promise never to hack into a top secret global organisation, shut down one of their projects temporarily, get myself arrested then pretend to take Clint hostage and get myself shot in the process," she relented jokingly and watched as her father smiled slightly "So, how is everyone else?"

"Well your stunt made sure that you got Clint and Agent 13 out okay, Fury got out fine too and Natasha's currently dealing with senate hearings," Tony answered relatively calmly.

"And Steve?"

"They found him on the bed of the Potomac River the day after you were brought in, they say he'll be fine but he's comatose for the moment," he continued, unsure as to how his daughter would take the news "He's a couple of doors down from you if you wanted to see him once the doctors give you the okay," he said after seeing how Samantha felt the need to take a deep breath as she took the news in.

* * *

Samantha wheeled herself into Steve's room, able to hear the Troubleman Soundtrack by Marvin Gaye. "How's he doing?" she asked the man who sat near to Steve's bedside.

"He's doing alright, considering. Sorry but who exactly are you?" the man asked, his mouth turning upwards into a smile but his eyes portraying something slightly different.

"Samantha Montgomery," she answered, a polite smile on her face.

"So you're the girl who came up with the original plan, "he said then as an after-thought he introduced himself "I'm Sam Wilson by the way,"

"Nice to meet you," Samantha replied "Is this the Troubleman soundtrack?" she said as she got into the groove of the album.

"You like Marvin Gaye?"

"I think he's a good artist to play to someone who needs to catch up on 70 years of music," she joked "I'm more of a fan of What's Going On and Easy than Troubleman but you know,"

"Interesting, why is that?"

"Well What's Going On is so political, it's a total departure from what he'd been doing and Easy is quite possibly the greatest example of Motown music ever made," she said passionately.

"Fair argument," Sam said with a smile but then noted that Samantha was wearing a hospital gown and felt the need to ask "Okay so what did you do to get yourself into a hospital,"

"Apparently a gunshot wound to the stomach does that," she joked with a laugh.

"Nice to see you've got a sense of humour about it. I've known a few guys who'd just wallow in it," Sam replied.

"Yeah I've decided that wallowing isn't really my style, I wallowed when my ex broke up with me and that ended in me being even more heartbroken, I wallowed when my mom died and that just ended in alcohol poisoning so I figure wallowing over a wound that'll just end in a relatively small scar isn't that great an idea," she said with a shrug and a smile. Just then they heard a groan from Steve and she looked to him before asking "Has he made noises in his sleep before?"

"Not that I've noticed, but I've not been here for the entire time he's been asleep," Sam replied "Should I go grab a nurse?"

"Nah, I reckon we wait 'til he comes round properly," she said casually "How do you know guys who've had bullet wounds then?"

"Two tours in the army," he answered bluntly.

* * *

Steve Rogers woke up to see Samantha Montgomery sat in a wheelchair, wearing a hospital gown, discussing something with Sam Wilson, and heard music that sounded rather different in comparison to what he'd grown used to before waking up from his 70 year sleep. He noted that Tony Stark was stood out in the hallway watching over the scene and tried to sit up "Swear to god I'd better not been sleep for another couple of years," he joked aloud and watched as Sam and Samantha turned to face him.

"Opening with a joke, you sound like my dad," Samantha joked with a smile and it made him laugh slightly.

"I hope not, what happened to you?"

"Gunshot wound to the stomach, lucky Clint and your friend Agent 13 got me out when they did," she replied "Bright side is I get to sit down for an age, which means I get to have movie central when I get home, although I'll lose muscle tone in the process so there's a downside," she joked lightly.

"Now you sound like Natasha," he jested back to her.

* * *

Despite Tony's protestations, and there were some massive protests from him, Samantha remained in Steve's room as long as she could, returning every day. They talked over everything from the differences between 1930s/1940s education and 21st Century education to politics. She introduced him to Hitchcock and The Beatles and he introduced her to early Jazz and silent films. They were able to laugh and joke together with ease and as Tony watched on he got worried, he noticed how Samantha lit up whenever Steve's name was mentioned and he worried that she'd end up heartbroken if Steve didn't reciprocate the feelings she had and he worried that if Steve did reciprocate and they started something then Samantha would have to deal with death once again when he went on a mission and didn't come back. He'd listened to what Pepper had to say on the matter, that he should stay out of it; that Samantha didn't necessarily need protecting but he had given up taking heed of his girlfriend's advice on the subject.

One night, the night before Samantha was due to be discharged to be specific, Tony had taken Samantha to her hospital room so that she could sleep but unlike normal he didn't stay in her room, he went back to Steve's room and decided to confront him "How do you feel about Samantha?" Tony asked after shutting the door.

"Uhh… I don't think that's any of your business," Steve replied defensively.

"It is my business because Samantha is my daughter and I may not have been there for the majority of her life, not by choice either I might add, but I worry about her and she lights up when she's in the same room as you or when your name is even mentioned. So Buck Rogers, it is my business and I want for my daughter to be happy so if you don't feel the same I need to know so that I can warn her away from you," Tony told the older/younger man.

"I get where you're coming from Tony so I'll tell you. Yes I do feel that way about Samantha but I want to protect her from getting hurt just like you do. I don't want to start something I can't necessarily finish because you and I both know that we'll go away on a mission one day and we might not necessarily come back. She's been through enough she doesn't need to deal with another death Tony and we both know it," Steve responded, his eyes betraying the kindness his voice could not.

"My god you need to take a page from my dad's book. Dad used to say that if the war taught him anything that it was that you've got to live for the moment. If you love a girl, you tell her. If you want to be with someone you be with her. Surely being frozen for 70 years and unable to go on a date with _one _girl would teach you that at least!" Tony said before turning on his heel and departing the room, leaving Steve to ponder upon what he'd just been told.

* * *

"So I figure that seeing as this is the last time I'll be able to be here without having to fly across country, I should bring Thai food," Samantha said as she entered the room with a bag of food in containers sat on her lap "I remembered it being on your list of things you needed to experience to catch up with the rest of us and it's the last one," she continued excitedly as she took the different foods out of the bags. It was nearing midday and Samantha had been discharged, apparently hospital policy meant that she had to sit in the wheelchair until she left but she did get to wear her own comfortable clothes so that made it slightly exciting for her.

"Can we talk?" Steve asked as Samantha put the food down on the bedside table.

"Sure what's up?"

"I'm not quite sure how to put this, we never really did this back in my time. The whole talking about your feelings thing never happened," he said nervously.

"Okay then educate me on how you would do whatever this is back in the 1940s," Samantha replied with a smirk emblazoned on her face.

"Well first we'd go out to a nice restaurant or something," he said and Samantha decided to put the food out onto plates.

"Makeshift restaurant, we have paper plates, plastic forks and Thai food, what's the next step?" she told him as she put one of the plates in front of him "Okay so we have our food, now what do we do?"

"We eat and talk," he said with a sweet smile.

"What do we talk about?"

"Anything, films we've seen, the weather, books, our childhoods that sort of thing," he told her and off they started on a conversation about one of the films Samantha had shown him the day before whilst they ate their Thai food.

"Okay so we've finished our meal, now what do we do?" Samantha asked curiously after they'd finished their food.

"Well normally we'd go out dancing but we're in a hospital and your injury – "

"Isn't going to prevent one little dance Steve," Samantha corrected the point he was about to make. She got up from where she'd been sat, plugged her iPhone into the docking station on the bedside table and allowed Paloma Faith's song Just Be to play through the speakers. She knotted her fingers with his and dragged him up out of the bed before placing her free hand on Steve's shoulder whilst he placed his on her waist. They moved slowly in a circle until Steve spun her out and then back into his arms only to dip her slightly "Now what?" she asked softly, her eyelashes fluttering.

"Now… we kiss," he said before leaning in and pressing his lips to hers, their tongues battling for dominance as she snaked her arm around the back of his neck. When they finally broke for air, both had dreamy smiles on their faces.

* * *

Meanwhile, outside of the room, a congregation of nurses and doctors watched from the window outside the room, along with Tony. "It's so romantic," one of them said with a sigh.

Another asked "What's their story?"

To which another replied "Apparently he doesn't remember anything of what's been going on for the past 70 years and she's been helping him remember,"

Tony continued to watch on, a small smile on his face, happy for the both of them.

* * *

Samantha looked away from Steve for two seconds and saw the time "Crap! That can't be the time," she exclaimed in a slightly panicked voice.

"Why? What time is it?" Steve asked.

"It's 1.30 and I've got to catch the 2.30 flight back to LA," she said before turning around only to spot her father at the window. She grabbed her phone off of the docking station, gave Steve a chaste peck on the lips before forcing herself to sit in the wheelchair and wheel her out.

"So you and The Captain Eh?" Tony teased.

"Yup,"

"And should I be worried that my 16-year-old daughter is dating someone in his 80s?"

"He looks like he's 24," she argued.

"Okay then I suppose I can do this," Tony smiled happily before beginning to sing "_Samantha and Capsicle sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-_"

"Don't Dad," Samantha told him through her laughter.


	6. If I Could Change Your Mind

_**A/N – Hi all readers,**_

_**I'm slightly annoyed so be prepared to deal with a little bit of a rant from me. I'm sorry if you don't feel like dealing with an author rant then feel free to skip past it and onto the story. My rant today is on reviews. I know – boring as hell kind of rant – but I feel like you guys need to read this.**_

_**First of all, I'd like to thank all of those people who do review because quite often your comments and opinions are really helpful when I'm working on this story. **_

_**My second point, criticism is generally better if it is constructive and well-informed. So to MF 22 who reviewed yesterday, it was not a very nice experience to receive such a negative review, I am not perfect and I do not have a beta so my grammar may not be completely brilliant on a permanent basis. I have checked out your claim that the relationship between Steve and Samantha equates to statutory rape and I can state that it does not. According to the laws of the District of Colombia (or Washington DC as it is commonly known), where their first kiss happened, the relationship between Steve and Samantha would not be illegal as the District considers a minor to be somebody under the age of 15 and the two are not having sex as yet (it seems a bit premature to assume that this would happen so soon). In California, where Samantha lives for the most part, the relationship between the two people is not illegal as this breaks the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was signed in 1948 after World War Two. However, it would be illegal for the two to have sex therefore your claim is founded on ill-information on your part. I hope that you do not take this as a public naming and shaming type thing as I have tried to explain this as politely as I possibly can.**_

_**Sorry for my little rant there readers, I think it is better to air these sorts of things in the open rather than allow them to fester over days and weeks until I finally blow my top.**_

_**Happy reading **___

Samantha had been home for all of three days – and the majority of that been spent either on her father's beige leather couch or in her bed – when she heard the whirring blades of a helicopter as it landed on her father's front lawn (if you could call it that) "Dad! What illegal tech have you been working on down there?" she called down as she got up to answer the door.

"None at all," he called up to her and she smirked that typical Stark smirk as she answered the door to see Natasha Romanov getting off the helicopter followed by a dark-skinned man wearing a black eye patch (who she assumed to be Nick Fury) and then, much to Samantha's surprise, Steve Rogers followed in the descent from the helicopter.

Samantha ran over to Steve only to be whisked up into the super soldier's arms and spun around in the air whilst she kissed him. "What are you doing here?" she asked as he put her down on the ground.

"Well I was discharged yesterday and Nat and Fury said they were flying in here to talk to your dad about something so I figured why not bunny hop on their trip and surprise my beautiful girlfriend," he answered with a sweet smile as they began to make their way into the house if you could call it that (Palace? Yes. House? Not so much).

"Hmm girlfriend I like the sound of that," she said flirtatiously before calling out to her dad "Dad! Eyepatch, Red and Steve are here!"

"What? I don't get a nickname?" Steve asked feigning offence.

"No you don't. You've given me reason to like you. So don't piss me off," was Samantha's mock warning to him. The group waited for a few minutes before Samantha felt the need to yell down to her father's workshop "Dad if you don't get your ass up here in the next ten seconds I'm sending Red down there to make sure you do!"

"Jeez! I'm coming!" he announced as he climbed the stairs "I thought I was supposed to be the one who yells for you to come out of your room not the other way around," he complained once he'd reached the top of the stairs.

"Well clearly I'm more mature than you," she teased before poking her tongue out at him.

"Yeah, real mature," he mockingly replied before changing the subject "Not that I don't like having the unofficial new stroke old S.H.I.E.L.D. director and a trained assassin in my house but why are you here?"

"In light of recent events at S.H.I.E.L.D. we've had to do some housekeeping," Natasha began and Samantha got the feeling she was about to be interrogated for the second time in a month.

"We have a proposition for you and Samantha," Nick continued being more to the point than Natasha was going to be.

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times I will not work exclusively for S.H.I.E.L.D," Tony argued, having only half-listened to what he was being told, as though he were running on autopilot.

"Dad will you at least listen to Eyepatch?" Samantha questioned reproachfully leading both Natasha and Steve to snicker away quietly as they watched the interaction "What were you about to say?" she asked, turning to Fury with a sigh.

"In light of recent events we would like to train Samantha for S.H.I.E.L.D. and recruit her as a part of the Avengers Initiative," Fury finished.

"Absolutely not," Tony stated without a second thought.

"What's the pay like?" Samantha asked over the top of her father.

"Average to start,"

"And who would train me?"

"Samantha! You are not going to join S.H.I.E.L.D!" Tony ordered.

"I'm asking questions before I make a decision. We're not all completely impulsive like you Dad! I've graduated from college, I need a job because there is no way that I am going to live off of your back for the next two years until I can, legally, make my own decisions and anyway what happened to 'Whatever you want I'll help you do it'?" She seethed.

"That was before I thought you'd go round making stupid decisions!" he exclaimed "We are not discussing this any further Samantha! You're mother entrusted me with your care and she wouldn't want you to go and join S.H.I.E.L.D!" he continued to argue and Samantha felt the all too familiar feeling of hot, salty tears leaking from her eyes.

"You don't know what my mother would or wouldn't have wanted! You dated her for a year and most of that time you were out here dealing with Stark Industries! And then when she turned you down you didn't fight for her! You didn't fight for me!" she yelled at him as she violently swatted away her tears, seeing them as a sign of weakness that nobody in the room needed to see.

"Don't you think I regret that? I have regretted that every day since the day you showed up here! I've regretted not knowing you, not knowing your favourite songs or books or your favourite childhood toy because I wasn't there! And I swear Samantha if I had known about your existence then I would have done everything an awful lot differently. Please I've only just gotten you into my life don't leave it because you want to join a secret spy organisation," he pleaded and instead of looking into her father's begging eyes and allowing herself to feel guilty, Samantha did the only other thing she knew to do. She ran, she ran through the front door, down the driveway, past all of the other large, imposing mansions the neighbourhood contained, down the main road and out to Corral Canyon Park where she finally stopped to take a breath. She hadn't noticed that Steve had made the decision to run after, she hadn't noticed that an hour long run had taken her half an hour and she hadn't noticed the amount that her side had begun to hurt until she sat on a rock in the middle of the park.

"You're really fast when you want to get away, you know that right?" she heard and looked up to see Steve as he sat down beside her.

"Hmm a super soldier telling me I'm fast should I be worried?"

"No, just something that you could use at one time or another," he replied before asking the question she knew he would ask "You want to explain why you so desperately want to join S.H.I.E.L.D?"

She leant into his side and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders "It's more that I want the option. I don't want to live off of my Dad's money for the next two years and I don't want to be constantly worried that either you or Dad are going to come back in a body bag and me be one of the last to know, I want to actively prevent the death of either of you if it's at all possible," she said after some thought "And I suppose I do want to do something good for the world that's why I got my law degree, it was so I could help protect the innocent. It was why I tried to help you guys when S.H.I.E.L.D. was compromised,"

"And there was me thinking it was just because of my good looks," Steve teased.

"Well they were a factor," she deadpanned before returning to the original topic "Why did you want to fight in the war?"

"Well… everyone went out to fight after Pearl Harbour and I was a scrawny kid with asthma who wanted to fit in. I wanted to fight for my country, for freedom, for everything America stood for," he answered "Still stands for if you ask some people,"

"They should have called you Captain Patriot," was the brunette's satirising response.

"Hmm… doesn't quite sound right," he said, pretending to take the idea into consideration "Come on let's get you back home before your dad gets his suit out and starts looking for us,"

Samantha bit her lip and pouted "Do I have to? I mean did you see my dad's face? He looked like I'd just used his own weapon against him or something,"

'Which is exactly why you should go back there," he said before gently tilting her chin upwards "with your head held high and agree on a compromise and, as a bonus, I'll be with you every step of the way,"

"Okay," she stated with a sigh, sticking her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. With Steve's arm wrapped around her waist, Samantha walked back to the place she now considered as home.

When she returned home, Samantha saw Tony, Natasha and Fury all frowning and each of them in a different area of the living room, clearly there had been some form of argument since she'd left the room "If you're willing to listen, I've come up with a compromise of sorts," she announced and watched the three faces turn towards her as she stood in the doorway "I will do the S.H.I.E.L.D. training once I've healed from my injury and after the training I will return here and _only _go on S.H.I.E.L.D. missions that my dad is involved in until such as time when I can legally make the decision myself," she continued and watched a horrified expression spread across her father's face.

"Samantha you can't –" he started to choke out but she interrupt him.

"Expect you to let me do this? Dad if I do the training then I'll at least have a chance of fighting back if somebody decided to attack me to get to you – just like Killian did to Pepper – and if I'm at least in S.H.I.E.L.D's head office when you're out on a mission then I can make sure that Pepper and I aren't the last two people to know if you get hurt," she argued.

"She has a good point Stark," Natasha defended unexpectedly "As far as S.H.I.E.L.D. is concerned at the moment she's a liability, with the right training she won't be as much of one and if it makes you feel any better about it then Clint and I can train her," the redhead continued bringing Samantha to a point where she could have hugged the older woman.

"What do you think Fury?" Samantha asked the S.H.I.E.L.D. director politely.

"I think it's unorthodox but you've already proven your loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D. so I'll allow it," was the answer received.

It was then that Samantha decided to test out the big guns that had always worked on her mother on her father. She batted her eyelashes and started to use her well-rehearsed version of a puppy dog pout and begged, saying "Please Daddy," in a slight baby voice.

Tony looked to his daughter and almost immediately relented "Okay," he said with a sigh and received a hug from Samantha in return.

It had been a couple of hours since Fury, Natasha and Steve had left the newly rebuilt Stark Mansion and Tony sat on his beige leather living room sofa, a glass of scotch in his hand and Pepper's legs draped across his lap as she read through some Stark Industries documents that Tony wasn't _really _supposed to know about as yet. Samantha had headed off to bed an hour prior and Tony had been thinking about the situation he was being faced with. He swallowed the remainder of the amber liquid and got up, going over to the drinks cabinet in the corner of the large room and began to refill the glass "What's wrong?" he heard Pepper ask and when he turned to face her, he saw worry etched across her delicate facial features.

"Nothing," he lied, hoping to placate her for at least a minute or two.

"Tony, that'll be your third glass of scotch in half an hour, what's going on?" Pepper asked, her voice reproachful as she got up from her seat, putting the documents down on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

"Samantha was approached by Fury regarding the possibility of her joining S.H.I.E.L.D," Tony answered – an answer which was preceded by a sigh – "And she's considering the offer," he continued.

"And you're worried that she'll join and get herself killed," Pepper finished before watching her boyfriend nod "Did she explain why she wanted to join?"

"Not properly, not to me anyway,"

"Well did you ask her?"

"No, he said sounding relatively similar to a child who was being told off. A few silent moments followed before they heard an all too familiar scream.


	7. Nervous Girls

_A few moments of silence followed before they heard a familiar terrified shriek._

The first thing Tony did was grab his baseball bat, unsure whether his daughter was being attacked or whether it was another of her newly rare nightmares. He crept quietly down the hallway to Samantha's room and gently pushed the door open, unsure as to what he would see. What he saw wasn't exactly what he was expecting, a man – dressed all in black, including a black hooded jumper – leant over Samantha as she tried to push him off of her. Instinctively, Tony pressed a button on his watch, calling for his Iron Man suit.

He heard a low, gravelly voice – which, Tony assumed, must have belonged to the hooded man – say "You're mine now," his tone was almost predatory and it was just enough to make Samantha scream for her father and in reply, the voice said "There's nothing your precious Daddy can do about this,"

Adrenalin surged through Tony's veins as he leapt into action saying "I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you," his voice strong despite the fear and worry that was attempting to take over him. He picked up his daughter's attacker and pinned him against the wall, the sounds the suit made echoing throughout the house "Who are you?" Tony asked through gritted teeth, a feeling of anger rushing through him.

"You're daughter's worst nightmare," was the reply that made Tony scoff.

"Very original," he replied sarcastically before removing the man's hood and ordering "JARVIS, run facial recognition on this idiot and call the cops," as he took in the man's long blonde hair and green eyes.

"Match found sir, his name is Matthew Watson," JARVIS informed after a couple of seconds.

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Twenty minutes passed before two officers from the Malibu Police Department arrived and, while one carted Matthew away, the other remained at the mansion to take statements from Samantha, Tony and Pepper. "Did you know your assailant prior to this incident?" the officer asked carefully.

Samantha nodded and said "He's my ex-boyfriend," her voice shaking before she started to cry into her father's chest, seeking the comfort and protection only he could give at that point.

"Is there any chance we can do this in the next couple of days when Samantha is a bit calmer?" Pepper requested politely, realising that an actual answer was unlikely with the young brunette remaining in such an emotional state.

After minutes filled with sobbing and sniffling, Samantha lifted her head and Tony felt the need to ask "Was that the same ex-boyfriend who dumped you just before your mom died?" he looked down at her and watched as she nodded in reply, then he felt the need to ask another, if more personal, question, unsure as to what her response would be 'When you two were together, was he ever violent with you?"

A part of Samantha couldn't answer the question she just couldn't allow her father to see her as any more of a victim than he already did. She'd never told anyone about what Matthew did to her, not even her mother. She'd come home with bruises and cuts on her face and had explained away the questions with excuses like 'I fell over' or 'I walked into a wall'. When she'd come home in tears after Matthew had forced her into having sex with him, she'd wiped them away and when her mother queried about the tears and told her that she and Matthew had argued but be she'd fine the next morning. She hated how stupid Matthew had made her feel, how small he made her feel, how small he made her seem, she hated how he'd belittled her and how silent she'd become. She hated that he'd turned her into a liar and that meant she had turned into the opposite of the woman her mother had raised her to be. Matthew Watson had twisted and turned and moulded Samantha Montgomery until she became a victim who piled make-up onto her face on a daily basis to cover injuries she didn't realise she didn't deserve, a puppet controlled by fear. That was why she loathed herself and the relationship that was the one thing out of her whole 16 ½ year existence that she regretted.

And then there was the other part of her that wanted for someone to know, not so that she'd get sympathy or so whomever knew would treat her like some sort of porcelain doll on the edge of a precipice because, to her, both of those possibilities really sucked to her. No she wanted somebody to know because if she told someone then maybe she would hated herself just that little bit less and then maybe, just maybe, she could stop being the nervous wreck she'd allowed herself to become.

And so she answered her father with the affirmative and she felt his arms wrap around her shaking form in a protective hug and she continued to cry but now her tears were ones of relief because now somebody knew of her plight. She felt like a huge, big weight had been lifted from her shoulders, like she'd been Atlas who held the sky on a daily and nightly basis and suddenly the burden was somewhat gone "If I explain, you're not allowed to feel sorry for me," Samantha said, knowing full well that her father would need an explanation of some sort "You've got to promise because I swear if I tell you and you feel sorry for me then I'll never be able to forgive myself for what I let him do to me," she stressed.

"I promise," Tony stated, slightly confused by the odd request.

"He turned me into a version of Tess of the d'Urbervilles," she started after some time and, after receiving Tony's confused expression, she explained "She's a character in a book. This guy seduced her and blamed her for being too tempting for him after he slept with her and that's pretty much what Matthew did to me. We met at college, I was in my last year and we were in the same class together and he sat next to me, he asked me for a pencil because he didn't have one and I had like ten. After the class, he asked me out and I – in my naiveté – said yes. It started a couple of weeks later, that's when he started to beat me. He would persuade me into thinking I was at fault for all of it and then it got worse. He wanted sex and I wasn't willing to do it so he started to… persuade me – verbally and physically – and then he'd make me feel guilty about it afterwards. He made me lie to everyone I knew and the… the worst part wasn't that that I stayed until he dumped me or even that it happened when it did. The worst part is that I… I _allowed _it to happen to me because I… I didn't fight back or… or stand my ground like I would have in _any _other situation,"

"Love makes fools out of everyone," he told her with a resigned sigh.

"Even Stephen Hawking?" she half-joked in reply.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure he's half-robot," he quipped back and she laughed, her smile returning to her face for just a few seconds.

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The next morning, Samantha walked over to her wardrobe, ready to get dressed for the day and instead, in a split-second, decided she needed to do a throw out. She needed to get rid of all evidence of any influence that Matthew had had over her life and the first place that started was her wardrobe. So, whilst she kept any band T-shirts, jeans, sweatpants and large jumpers, the vast majority of her clothing was gone, thrown into a large plastic black trash bag and she didn't stop until she heard the words "Woah! Where's all that stuff going?"

Samantha turned around and saw Pepper "It's all going to charity. I'm getting rid of it, if Matthew's going to go and be nothing but a scar and if that's going to happen then I have to get rid of the crappy wardrobe he made me wear," she replied as she threw a ruffled pink blouse into the bag, having to use all of her weight to push down so that she could create space within it.

Immediately, the older woman understood and announced "How about I help you and afterwards we can go shopping?"

"You've been looking for an excuse to take me shopping for a while haven't you?"

"No," the older woman replied with a laugh as she tried to feign some form of innocence.

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Samantha and Pepper were in their fifth store of the day. For the first time in her life, Samantha was on a shopping trip where she hadn't seen a price tag beneath $100. Before her mother's death, Samantha had only really shopped at Walmart and, on special occasions, Aeropostale or H&M. Now, in these stores, every time Samantha spotted something she liked, she'd gingerly pick it up, check what it looked like against her, then she'd discover the price and quickly put it back after which Pepper would pick it up and hand it to the shop assistant who'd been following them around like a lost puppy.

She'd made her way to a changing room for the fifth time that day, her arms laden with the garments the shop assistant had just handed her. She tried a couple on then took them off, kept a couple placing them on the hook on the makeshift wall beside her and passing the others to the waiting shop assistant.

After a couple of hours of doing this it all seemed pretty mundane to the brunette, in her opinion shopping for clothes was done in large stores and took two hours at most. It did _not _occur in tiny boutiques – the likes of which she'd only seen in Us Weekly or People Magazine – and it certainly didn't take six hours.

It was after trying on a black fitted tank top, which she planned to wear during her S.H.I.E.L.D. training, that Samantha heard Pepper's voice "Samantha? I'm going to pass you a dress. Try it on and show me what it looks like," just as a red, asymmetrical, floor length dress just above her knee. She looked at it in wonder for a couple of seconds before putting it on. She opened the curtain that hid her from the rest of the world and stepped out into the open "Oh my God! You look stunning!" Pepper exclaimed, sheer joy and delight etched across her face. The strawberry blonde was trying on a white and gold Grecian number which made her look like Aphrodite personified. To Samantha, standing next to Pepper was quite demoralising.

"No I don't, I look hideaous," the brunette said feeling ashamed for even trying the dress on "I look short and fat and ugly in this and everything I try on," she continued, facing the floor, unable to look her sort-of-stepmother in the eye as she admitted her insecurities.

"You look beautiful, you are beautiful Samantha. Don't let anyone _ever _tell you any different!" Pepper all but ordered and Samantha couldn't help but cry and Pepper did the only thing she knew to do, she brought the young girl into a hug, despite the sales assistant's protestations over getting tears on the dresses. Samantha recognised the feeling of the hug, it was warm and loving, the kind her mother used to give her "What's brought this on? Is this because of what happened last night?" Pepper asked after Samantha broke out of the hug.

"Partly, I mean I've always been insecure. Mom never explained about Dad and I always assumed he just left because of me, I didn't realise what Dad would have done if he knew that I existed and I just assumed that I deserved everything I got. Then Matthew came along and he just started to make me feel even worse about myself, he just made me feel really inferior and just… ugly and I know that I've got Steve now and he's really kind and sweet and when I'm with him I feel special but there's this thing in the back of my mind saying it won't last or he's just going to be the same as Matthew and I thought getting rid of all the clothes he made me wear and leaving the stuff that reminded me of him at Mom's apartment would get rid of all that but it hasn't and it scares the hell out of me," Samantha explained.

"Matthew was your first love right?" Pepper began and the teenager nodded in response to what seemed like a rhetorical question "And when you have your first love, you go crazy, you'll do whatever it takes to make them happy even if that means belittling yourself or following them around like you're some sort of lost puppy. But, more often than not, they're your first heartbreak. Sure, in the beginning they seem nice and honest but then soon enough they start claiming they're having lunch with their mother when they're really just screwing one of the office interns,"

"Uh Pepper are we still talking about Matther or –"

"Yeah that was just a hypothetical scenario," Pepper said, brushing off the question, it was an obvious lie but Samantha decided to leave it and pretend like she believed her. Pepper sighed and continued "Look what I'm trying to say is… the first love is where you make your mistakes. The first love is where you screw it all up and then move on. The first love leads you to put on ten pounds because you ate too much Chunky Monkey and pizza but the second one that's the best,"

A short silence followed before a question escaped from Samantha's lips "So… why exactly are we buying ball dresses?"

"Well your dad decided to host a party for the launch of Stark Industries' new med tech sector and… knowing how these things go it'll be incredibly formal until your dad breaks out the Tequila and starts dancing on tables so I figure new dresses are in order," was the reply Pepper gave and neither woman could help but crack a smile. "So the dress looks great on you, it could do with a couple of alterations but otherwise it looks amazing. I mean Steve is just going to _die _when he sees you in this!" The strawberry blonde said excitedly.

"What do you mean? I thought this was a Stark Industries launch party. Why would Steve be there?" was Samantha's confused reaction.

"Oh crap! It was supposed to be a surprise! I wasn't supposed to say anything about that part, forget I even said anything!" Pepper said, berating herself for her slip of the tongue.

"Pepper? Why is Steve going to be at a Stark Industries launch?" the young brunette asked, her voice giving off all of the suspicion she was feeling.

Pepper sighed resignedly before replying "S.H.I.E.L.D. always sends a _representative _to launches to make sure nothing goes wrong. It used to be Phil Coulson who'd go but since he died during the whole New York attack they send someone else. Normally it's Natasha but this time your dad mentioned it to Steve and Steve, of course, said yes. Just please promise me you'll act as though you're surprised when you see him," the older woman finished, her face and voice both maintained their pleading expression.

Samantha smiled upon seeing Pepper's face "I guess I'll have to work on my acting then," the brunette agreed.

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When they got home, it took five trips back to the car and inside the house for Samantha and Pepper to get all of the shopping inside "Christ! What did you do? Buy a whole store?" Tony exclaimed when he spotted all of the shopping bags picked up in the living room.

"No! That would mean a whole lot more bags," Samantha quipped.

"Well I was happy with just getting some T-Shirts and jeans but Pepper decided that I needed a whole new wardrobe," was the cheeky reply which earned her a smirk from Tony and a bright smile from Pepper.

"Did you at least get a dress for the launch?"

"Yes I did and before you ask, Pepper picked it out so it isn't inappropriate or too slutty and no you cannot see it because it's being altered," she replied, a teasing smile on her face.


	8. A Little Party Never Killed Nobody

_**A/N – I know it's been a while since I've updated but I have had school to contend with so this story has sort of fallen to the wayside a bit. Now I think I may have promised you guys a party at some point so onwards…**_

Samantha stood in front of the mirror in her bedroom and smiled; it was the first time she seemed relatively happy with her appearance in a long while. Her hair had been curled and pinned into a loose bun and she wore the red dress Pepper had picked out for her those two short weeks ago. She'd paired it with a pair of diamond studs (which she'd borrowed from Pepper) and a pair of red, strappy Christian Louboutin sandals. Her lips were painted a pillar box red and her eyelids, whilst still their normal colour, had been carefully lined with a kohl eyeliner into a cat's eye and her eyelashes were painted black to match.

She walked out of her bedroom and into the living room to be greeted by her shell shocked father and a beaming Pepper. She did the twirl she felt was obligatory and smiled "You're all grown up," Tony said pretending to shed a tear.

"Come on old man," she replied jokingly, a response which had been completed with an eye roll. Then she decided to change the subject "This is sort of weird. It's like going to prom… or it's like what I suppose going to prom would be like,"

"Did you not go to your prom?" Pepper asked, shocked. The strawberry blonde was convinced that every girl wanted to go to prom and that almost all girls would go to prom… clearly not.

"No," she replied bluntly before explaining upon seeing Pepper's shock "Mom thought I did but my friend and I spent the night going out to clubs and drinking instead," the shock continued to reveal itself on Pepper's face and Tony smirked, Samantha was definitely his daughter – as if there was any doubt – "The hangover the next day taught me a pretty big lesion – Tequila and Champagne do not mix,"

After their relatively short interaction, Tony led the two women outside to the waiting limousine "Oh my God! A limo?" was Samantha's typically teenage exclamation "What's next? A freaking red carpet?" was her more sarcastic Stark-like answer.

"There might be," Pepper said in a not-so discreet manner.

Samantha took in a deep breath as she watched Tony and Pepper get out of the limo before getting out herself a second later. Flashbulbs went off in her face momentarily blinding her. When Pepper had said that there would be a red carpet, Samantha had suspended that it would be a gimmick of some sort and she hadn't worried about it. Now, however, faced with the photographers, journalists and flashing lights she was, well nervous was an understatement. "Come on Samantha," Tony called out to her and she hurried over to him and Pepper as fast as her shoes would allow her.

He led her and Pepper over to a blonde journalist and Samantha noticed how her sort of stepmother tensed up as they approached her "You alright?" Samantha whispered into the strawberry blonde's ear.

"Yeah. She slept with Tony once and… I may have called her trash," Pepper explained and the two women laughed, Pepper nervously and Samantha hysterically.

"Mr Stark," the journalist addressed Tony with a smile on her face, then she bitterly added "Pepper," before asking a question which was likely to be asked a lot that night "And who is this?" she smoothened her skirt and tugged on her suit jacket and blouse so that a button popped revealing a black lacy bra.

"Samantha Montgomery," the brunette replied almost too quickly.

"And who exactly are you? Who is Samantha Montgomery?" the journalist asked.

"Well that is a very existential question, Miss –"

"Everheart, Christine Everheart,"

"Miss Everheart, Samantha Montgomery is a 16-year-old UCLA graduate with a double major in Law and Communications and I'm…" the brunette trailed off, stopping herself from admitting her birth right, completely unsure as to whether she should introduce herself as Tony Stark's recently discovered daughter or simply the daughter of Audrey Montgomery.

"She's –" Pepper began to pick up but found herself being interrupted by Tony.

"Samantha is my daughter," he stated, a large, cheerful grin etched across his face.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Christine stated pushing her Dictaphone closer towards Tony's face, shocked imprinted on her face.

"No it isn't," Tony confirmed.

"Tony, we have to head inside otherwise there'll be some rather angry ticket holders who'll be wanting their money back," Pepper stated and the three people, who now formed a family of sorts, made their way into the hotel.

Once inside, Pepper grabbed a hold of Samantha's hand and rushed her up the stairs and into a bathroom, only stopping to tell Tony that she'd see him before he got on stage for the presentation. Once they were in the bathroom, Pepper immediately stated "You did really well out there,"

"Did I? I felt as though I was drowning on dry land," the brunette replied with a slight nervous laugh.

"You were fine. I wasn't expecting your dad to drag us over to her. I would've thought he'd take us to a less seasoned journalist rather than Christine Everheart," Pepper stated disdainfully as she tucked a few stray curls back into place before turning back to Samantha "Honestly that woman is like a dog with a bone, once she's got a hold of something, she does not let go," Pepper continued, sounding ever-so-slightly annoyed.

Immediately, Samantha understood "Which is why she wore a blouse that was at least one size too small _and _tugged so hard on it. She had Dad once and doesn't want to let him go. She was trying to assert some kind of dominance over you," the teenager finished and upon realising that Pepper looked slightly upset by this she decided that a pep talk might be necessary "But do you know what she doesn't realise?" Pepper shook her head in response "She doesn't realise that to my dad you are endgame, it's you or no-one. I've never seen anyone look at anyone else the way he looks at you. He looks to you before he makes any kind of decision. He worships the very ground you walk on. He appreciates everything you do and are. To him you are a goddess, you are Venus reincarnated. So women like Christine Everheart mean absolutely nothing to him because next to you they are nothing. Just remember that,"

"Okay, thank you," was all Pepper was able to manage in reply to the mini pep talk before they made their way out of the bathroom, not noticing that there had been another woman in the bathroom, hiding in one of the stalls.

When she left the bathroom and headed towards the staircase she had walked up not long before, the first person Samantha saw was Steve who stood at the bottom of the staircase. A coy smile made an appearance on her face and she had to do all that was possible to stop herself from running down the steps, an act which would – most likely – culminate in her tripping and falling flat on her face due to the height of her shoes. So she managed – just about – to walk slowly down the stairs giving off the effect that she was gliding. When she, finally, reached Steve, Samantha only managed to utter the word "Hey," somewhat shocked by how staggeringly gorgeous her boyfriend looked in the traditional black tuxedo he now sported.

Samantha's reaction was nothing, however, when compared to Steve's. Speechless was too corny a word to define it, she'd left him completely floored. He had known she was beautiful, that had always been clear. Even in a hospital gown with her shoulder-length chocolate brown curls a slightly tatted mess she was beautiful but now, fully made up and wearing that pillar box red dress, she could have been a goddess, or at least that's what _he_ thought anyway "You look amazing," he eventually managed before pulling her in for an all too brief kiss.

"You don't look so bad yourself," she managed to say in a flirtatious manner after they pulled apart. She then led him through to the ballroom being used for the event. Over the two weeks since telling her about the launch, Pepper had done her best to wholly include Samantha in the final planning stages and so the brunette had seen concept designs for the set up but still wasn't prepared for the extravagance and splendour the room offered. Three chandeliers hung from the ceiling in a row, tables with floral centrepieces made up of blue hydrangeas and red roses were dotted around the edge of the room. A stage stood at the front of the room with stage lights projecting red and yellow radiance onto the snow tinted wall they faced.

She could hear the whispers that surrounded her as she moved through the room. Gossiping women saying things like 'Who is she?' and 'Isn't she a bit too young to be at an event like this?' It all made her freeze up slightly, the thought that people might talk about her and – unfortunately – she knew that she was the topic of their conversations, in such an indiscreet, tactless fashion without even bothering to meet her bugged the teenager to no end.

"You okay?" Steve murmured in her ear. He'd taken notice of the way she'd frozen in place and how, quite suddenly, he grip on his arm had turned vice-like.

"Am I imagining their whispers or are they real?" she asked, the paranoid little voice in her head telling her that the whispers were in fact a hallucination and that she probably had some kind of bigger health issue.

"No they're real," Steve stated bluntly before coming to the realisation that his girlfriend probably needed some form of comfort or encouragement "But it doesn't matter because they are women gossiping and you are far more intelligent than they are. And you're an awful lot prettier too. So in celebration of that, tonight we are going to ignore them and have a good time,"

"Thank you," she said with a smile on her face before kissing him on the cheek. Samantha had to break away when she heard the iconic sound of the guitar line to AC/DC's Back in Black and she turned to face the stage just in time to see her father walk onto it. She immediately became nervous and she had no inkling as to why that might be either.

Tony had a hold of a microphone as he walked across the stage and he began his speech as a podium, holding a relatively small device, was raised onto the stage "Since the tragic events of September 11th we have dealt with the advancement of weaponry,"

"What happened on September 11th?" Steve whispered into Samantha's ear.

At first she gasped before remembering that her boyfriend had been a Capsicle for 70 years "Some terrorists took over four planes and tried to use them for target practice," she murmured, her voice emotionless. She may have been four when it happened, but her amazing recall meant that she was still able to remember her mother's reaction, the days afterwards where Audrey Montgomery had refused to leave her bed because Lucille and James Montgomery had been working in the World Trade Centre when the planes hit.

She turned back to the stage to listen to her father speak, "Now we are incredibly ill-equipped to deal with the injuries our soldiers are sustaining. Once upon a time, not so long ago, I was on the other side of that battle. Now, as one of the very few names in clean energy, Stark Industries will also be joining the new medical technology race with devices like this," Tony announced as he picked up the device off the podium and revealing it fully to the audience assembled before him "This tiny device is called a wound scanner… well that's its working title anyway... this will allow field doctors to scan soldiers for injuries in mere seconds and, not to toot my own horn, but it is quite possibly the future of onsite diagnosis. As a father," he continued leading Rumour to stretch her fingers across the room "I am pleased to know that should my daughter be injured in battle, there is the chance that she can be saved by early diagnosis because of a device as simple as this," he finished, a smirk emblazoned on his face.

"Mr Stark, who is your daughter?" a woman called from the back of the room. Some people turned to face her, others stared straight ahead waiting for Tony's response.

"Please, no questions unless it involves the device," he politely declined, a strange moment for those who had followed Tony and his incredibly public life.

"Okay… Was your daughter the inspiration for this device?" the woman asked, clearly she was going to be persistent.

"No, for once in my life I had a device ready long before its launch," Tony joked and the room let out a collective laugh but the woman continued to push.

"So you're saying that you only recently discovered her existence?"

"Like I said earlier, if your question does not regard the device then I will refuse to answer it," he replied and Samantha knew exactly why he was trying to deflect the questions. He was trying to protect her from the people in the room and what they were likely to say. She already knew that her name was going to be on the front page of whatever magazine or newspaper Christine Everheart worked for but the people in the room were a different story, they could talk and blog and make her feel uncomfortable and somehow Tony knew that.

"Mr Stark, I work for an organisation known as HYDRA, if I were you I wouldn't be refusing to answer my questions with that kind of intelligence,"

Upon that announcement, Steve, Tony, Pepper and Samantha let out a collective gasp and Samantha heard the words "Get out of here now," escape her boyfriend's lips.

"If you think I'm leaving you, you're mistaken," she replied in a low yet fierce whisper as she searched her red clutch for her phone. She sent off a text to Pepper saying '_Head somewhere they won't expect to find you. DON'T got to the mansion or the office,'_

Not 30 seconds later, she received a reply _'What about you?'_

'_I'll be fine just make sure you're safe,' _Samantha texted back before asking Steve "What do we do?"

"You got Nat's number on there?" he asked and she handed him her phone but he refused "You're going to have to send it. I'm not sure now is the best time for me to learn how to text. Just tell her 'Back up needed at launch. HYDRA turned up,'" he told her and she did as she was told.

Then Samantha got a little cocky, her inner Stark showing, and decided to ask the HYDRA agent a few questions "Just what exactly does HYDRA do that would make Mr Stark so keen to answer your questions?" she called out and the woman turned towards her.

"That's a little impertinent for a teenager. Didn't your parents teach you any manners?"

"My question was in no way impertinent. I would like know, as a member of Mr Stark's legal team, why HYDRA is so intrigued by the existence of Mr Stark's daughter. So I ask you again what does HYDRA do?"

"We are an organisation concerned with the protection of German citizens. Mr Stark endangered the lives of German citizens back in 2012 whilst in Stuttgart in his attempt to capture Loki,"

"I'm still struggling to see what this has to do with regards to the identity of Mr Stark's daughter. Needless to say that what happened in Stuttgart occurred in an attempt to protect German citizens any of whom were injured in the attempt were, as the United Nations and the United States Government would put it, collateral damage," the young brunette stated and the woman walked closer to her.

"You have his jawline," she commented, eyes narrowed.

"A lot of people do," Samantha responded coolly.

"And his hair,"

"It's a common colour,"

"And you bounce back just like him," here was a woman ready to pounce and Samantha was just as ready for a fight.

"Funny thing about getting a law degree _and _a degree in communications, that's the kind of thing they teach you. Wit, the difference between a lie and the truth. Now tell me what is HYDRA and this time save the bullshit lies for a room full of people you aren't attempting to threaten,"

"Fine. You want the truth? How's this for the truth. We are a terrorist organisation,"

"And you're one of their agents, correct?"

"Very good Miss…"

"My name is of no great import. What is of importance to you is that there are people on their way who would be very pleased if they were given the opportunity to arrest you. So I suggest you tell everyone in this room what you plan to do seeing as it's probably going to culminate in a death of some sort," Samantha instructed and the woman appeared shocked for a second. The young brunette turned towards the edge of the stage where Pepper had stood and noted that she had disappeared, she hoped that she had gotten away and hadn't been caught by someone from HYDRA.

"Fine, the plan – which I'm still going to continue with – was to make Mr Stark feel emotional pain, the kind he could never bounce back from. Our original target was Miss Potts but then he mentioned a daughter during his speech and… well I couldn't resist could I?" the woman said, a passive-aggressive smile on her face "Now seeing as you are so defensive of Mr Stark I can only presume that you are his daughter am I correct?"

"What would you do if I were?"

"I'd kill you in front of everyone here," was the woman's emotionless reply just as Samantha's phone buzzed.

'_Am outside the room now, you still need back up?' _It read and Samantha noted that it was Natasha.

She sent off a quick _'Might be a necessity' _before answering the woman before her "Well then you got me," and with incredible alacrity, the woman placed Samantha into a headlock and put a gun to the teenager's head.

"No!" Tony yelled across the room as Steve's jaw dropped.

Just then Natasha rushed into the room, dressed in her all black, S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform, distracting the woman enough for Samantha to be able to elbow her in the ribcage, escape the headlock and take the gun out of her hand.

"How many of you are there?" she requested pointing the gun at her – it appeared to be a prime target shot if she were to take it.

"You think I'd give away the rest of my team, their duties and their locations?"

"I don't know, would you? Because if you did it would make my life an awful lot easier,"

"And I'm all about making your life easier aren't I?"

"You might be. You've already told a room full of people what your organisation does _and _your MO what's a few more details?" Samantha said, eyes narrowed, she was prepped to take the shot "Plus you've just said that there's a team of you so I know that there's at least three of you here and I'd presume one of them is acting as wait staff and another is in a hotel room listening in on this very conversation," the brunette told her "Why don't you just tell us which hotel room and I might tell my friend here…" she trailed off making sure that Natasha could be seen by the woman "Will make sure you get a short prison stay," suddenly, the young brunette felt something hard hit the back of her head and she collapsed to the floor, everything in her world fading to black.

_**A/N – I know that ended up turning into not much of a party but I wanted to prove to some people that Samantha could have the capability of being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with ease and a party turning to custard with a threat seemed like the best option. Also I sincerely apologise for the cliffhanger ending, I'll try to avoid them.**_


	9. Don't Let Go

_She saw him from across the room. He'd looked good in the picture her father's files contained but he looked so much better in person, like Adonis. His smile was something she'd thought only movie stars were capable of and that hair, what she wouldn't have done to run her fingers through it. And she couldn't help but notice those eyes, those blue-grey eyes that looked as though they had seen such loss and felt such hurt._

"What do you mean she might not remember us?" Tony shouted at the doctor in front of him.

Steve was pacing across the floor in a panic of sorts – one that had refused to end since Samantha had been knocked unconscious.

Pepper had spent the majority of the previous week in tears, not only had she grown attached to the teenager but – because of Samantha's quick fire texting – also felt as though she owed her life to the girl, and the worst part was that Tony had no idea how to comfort her because he, himself, felt like crying.

Natasha had remained in a corner of the room for the best part of the week, completely silent, blaming herself for not arriving to the scene earlier.

"Mr Stark, I'm afraid that it is a possibility that your daughter won't remember you if she wakes up. I have to tell you that, in my experience, every head injury is different," The doctor who stood in front of him said as gently as possible.

"You said if. What do you mean if?" Tony asked, he had barely given that possibility a thought. It hadn't even crossed his mind that Samantha mightn't wake up.

"I mean that there is a lot of swelling in Samantha's brain due to both the hit to the head and subsequent fall. The brain is a very complex organ and everybody reacts differently to a head injury," he explained.

"Of course Dr Potter, if you could keep us fully up to date on her condition that would be great," Pepper said politely, a small smile on her face, taking a break from her tears to usher the middle-aged doctor out of the room.

"Of course Miss Potts," he replied with a kind smile.

Samantha hadn't been short on visitors during her week long comatose hospital stay. Along with the four staple visitors, Clint had shown up bearing flowers as had Bruce. Agent 13 had arrived with chocolate and information. Even Nick Fury himself had visited, albeit with the partial aim of having Natasha return to work from her vigil, something the redhead refused to do.

The woman sat in her 4x8 cell awaiting her fate. She'd been told that her punishment could be anywhere between life imprisonment and death. She'd done it all in the name of Red Skull, done it to make him proud and that in turn pleased her. Of course Red Skull was alive, Captain America thought otherwise but he was alive. He hadn't _really _died after touching the Tesseract, it had been a mere illusion, a trick of the light, she didn't know precisely how he had done it, all she needed to know was that it had happened.

She hadn't been allowed to see any of her other team members, S.H.I.E.L.D. had proved themselves fully capable of that, despite their now limited resources. They were now operating out of an old, abandoned warehouse and the cells were less than what she would receive in prison but that made it easier for her to make her escape and that was exactly what she was planning.

What was wrong with S.H.I.E.L.D. anyway? Couldn't they see that she was only fighting for some form of good in this world? That had been their M.O. as well except S.H.I.E.L.D. operated for the wrong kind of good. When would justice be served to such an organisation? First, they'd forced her master into hiding in the foothills of Afghanistan like some common terrorist. Then, they'd foiled HYDRA's plans to hijack S.H.I.E.L.D. Now, they were holding _her _prisoner while Samantha Montgomery, the traitor, Baby Stark in the flesh, lay up in a hospital bed, comatose.

Okay, maybe Samantha wasn't really the traitor that title belonged to the bitch's mother. Audrey Montgomery had made promises to HYDRA upon the discovery of her pregnancy. She would raise the child in the HYDRA way, with HYDRA values. Clearly, that hadn't happened and Samantha had quickly latched onto her father Steve Rogers and S.H.I.E.L.D. in some weird dependency system. The woman didn't like _that _fact one bit and she was going to make sure that everything was set straight and put back into its natural order. But how? That was fast becoming the most important question.

_He was kissing her! Captain America (A.K.A. Steve Rogers) was kissing her! And it wasn't even a dream! Nor was it a chaste peck on the kiss! It was a full-blown passionate, virtually make out, kiss. Sure, it wasn't the most _romantic _setting: They were in a hospital room, he was wearing a hospital gown, her hair was a total mess of knots and she didn't have a speck of make-up on but none of that mattered. It didn't matter because that moment she'd sort of hoped for since she'd first met him was actually happening. And it was perfect._

She couldn't stay in that room any longer. Everyone was so _upset _because of what had happened and yet she couldn't help but feel that it was all her fault. Maybe not the actual _incident _but Samantha getting hit over the head? _That_ seemed like it was her fault. If she'd just arrived a _couple _of moments earlier then maybe Samantha – poor, sweet Samantha who'd already suffered so much in her short life – wouldn't be in the position in which she now lay.

And then there was the other matter. The matter of Audrey Montgomery's other identity. Natasha knew about it and it had almost killed her that Fury had banned her from mentioning it to the teenager lest it be that the girl knew already. But Natasha knew that there could be no way in which Samantha knew of Audrey's HYDRA agent status, let alone that she was one of their best agents. Only a select few within S.H.I.E.L.D. actually knew that Audrey Lucille Montgomery and Anastasia Grace Rebecca Abramovich were the same person.

True, Samantha was keen to help S.H.I.E.L.D. without having much knowledge about the organisation. And to many that might look suspicious. But Natasha's gut said that the girl's intentions were nothing other than well-meaning and Natasha's gut was _never _wrong.

Pepper couldn't help but feel an _enormous _sense of guilt. Now she knew that she'd been HYDRA's original target, she knew that Samantha's actions – both in telling her to get out and in interrogating the woman – had protected her to an extent she'd been shocked to learn of.

But adding to her colossal sense of guilt was the fact that she couldn't stop crying. _Tony's _daughter was lying in a hospital bed and _she _was crying, completely unable to stop and comfort Tony.

There was no way that Pepper could _not _admit that she'd grown attached to Samantha. She saw the brunette as a friend at least and a surrogate daughter at most. She was entirely likable and had a sarcasm that rivalled Tony's. Yet, at the same time, she was incredibly well-mannered with an impressive emotional intelligence for someone who seemed so knowledgeable and generally intelligent. And she was loyal, by god was she loyal, recent events had proved that and more. Pepper couldn't help but be left in awe by her sort of stepdaughter.

At first, Pepper had worried about Samantha. Worried that the younger woman would see her as some kind of threat for Tony's affection but warfare hadn't even begun to exist between the two for any reason. The relationship had been ideal in every way and Pepper could only hope that when Samantha woke up, the idealness of the relationship would continue.

She placed her hand on Tony's shoulder, hoping it could be of some comfort to him. Alas, he simply shrugged it off and Pepper couldn't help but worry that HYDRA were getting exactly what they wanted.

_How was he able to comfort her as quickly as he could? They'd been sat down for barely five minutes and she'd already spilled her guts to him and she was beginning to feel normal again, like she could laugh and joke about everything again. How did that happen? How did her potential happiness become so dependent on one man?_

He blamed himself. How could he not? There had been so many opportunities for him to step in and yet in no way had he attempted to. Instead, he had stood by and watched, a biased observer to what had unfurled in front of his eyes. He hadn't even said anything when she was held at gunpoint.

Self-loathing was beginning to overtake his thoughts and that forced disgust to take over. Disgust with himself obviously, disgust because, even though his girlfriend lay in a hospital bed, he was thinking of himself. Sure, he needed somebody to blame for this but – the woman and her team aside – he couldn't find anyone except from himself.

When had he become this _selfish_? He couldn't think of anything except for himself. Could being frozen for 70 odd years change a person's character? He didn't know. There he was again, thinking of himself when he could be – correction should be – thinking about Samantha.

He looked to Tony who sat holding Samantha's hand, his eyebrows furrowed out of what could only be described as worry and fear. Steve Rogers had never seen Tony look worried in the short time they'd known each other. He'd seen fear, sarcasm, anger and happiness on the man's face but _never _worry, _that _was a totally knew expression.

_Somehow calm was overcoming her, she wanted to check whether her hand was shaking from nerves but she couldn't. There was a gun being held to her head and, really, there was nothing she could do. So, she waited, waited for the bullet to pass quickly from the gun, through the left side of her skull until it lodged its way into her frontal lobe, rendering her unable to properly think consciously. There was no way her death would be painless but it would be quick. She could see the faces of her father and Steve and she wanted to assure them that she'd be okay, that they'd lived the entirety of their lives before she came along and they'd be fine without her. But then Natasha arrived and the woman was distracted, enabling Samantha to reverse their positions. Now _she _was the gun-toting potential assassin and her assailant was the possible victim. She continued what she supposed could be classed as an interrogation before being hit over the head with what felt like a vase of jug and then fell to the floor._

Her eyelids snapped open. It felt as though they'd been shut for ages. Her first instinct was to wiggle her fingers and toes, making sure she was able to function all of them. Thankfully, she could. Next, she tried to talk but found an obstruction preventing any real sound. Instead, she ended up gagging and found it difficult to stop "Samantha, don't try and talk, you have an intubation tube in your mouth. Would you like us to take it out? Blink once for yes and twice for no," she heard a male voice say, it was in no way familiar but still she blinked once "Okay, you're going to need to take a deep breath for me so that I can take it out okay?" Samantha blinked again and did as she was told.

Once she could breathe on her own again, she looked around the room, noting that Steve, Pepper and Tony were all in the room. She smiled.

It wasn't long before Natasha returned to the room with one thing to say "I just got a phone call, Fury resigned as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."


	10. The Story

_It wasn't long before Natasha returned to the room with one thing to say "I just got a phone call, Fury resigned as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."_

A veil of silence fell over the room, only the beeping from Samantha's heart monitor becoming the only thing that could be heard. Everyone was in shock, Fury had seemed such a constant within S.H.I.E.L.D. even when he'd died he hadn't really died and now he was resigning? It didn't add up at all. Who would be the new director, the first thought popping into the minds of both Tony and Steve being the name Maria Hill but Pepper knew otherwise – she would have received notification regarding Hill's resigning if that were the case. Samantha had no clue as to who it would be, for all she knew it could be Tony and wouldn't that be a strange scenario?

"What do you mean? Fury can't have resigned. Where did you hear that?" Samantha asked, her voice hoarse from the recently removed intubation tube.

"Straight from the horse's mouth," Natasha replied bluntly, a frown spreading across her face. The next few questions she was about to be asked were going to be difficult to answer, particularly with a civilian who wouldn't be affected by the news in the room.

"Who's replacing him?" Steve asked, his voice showing a reserved concern unique to only him.

"Coulson," was Natasha's frank response.

Nobody in that room was capable of taking that answer as read, it was impossible "That can't be right," was Tony's response, the first words he'd said since before Samantha had awoken.

"It's impossible," Steve stated, surprisingly Tony and Steve were agreeing on something.

"Are you sure you heard right?" Pepper said, concerned for the redhead who stood at the entrance to the room.

"Isn't he supposed to be… you know… dead?" Samantha probed as tactfully as she thought possible, remembering back to her conversation with Pepper in the boutique changing rooms.

"This is probably a conversation we should have when certain _unauthorised civilians _can't hear," Natasha stated and Samantha looked to the doctor who was checking her vitals.

"Excuse me Doctor…."

"Potter,"

"Doctor Potter is there any chance that we can do these checks later on? I'm afraid this discussion is rather urgent and _unfortunately _we don't have the authorisation to allow you to listen," Samantha stated as politely as possible.

"But I need to do these tests in case anything goes wrong," he replied "It's kind of the rules,"

"Haven't you ever wanted to break the rules just once? Come on live a little. If something goes wrong we can always have you paged," she urged batting her eyelashes.

"Fine," he said with an adolescent sounding sigh.

"Thank you," Samantha replied as he left the room. Then she turned to face Natasha "Okay what do you know?"

"Fury had this project, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s science projects, practically no-one knew about it. It was one of his attempts to save our best and brightest. Before I go any further, I need to know that this won't leave this room. I'm only allowed to tell you because you all have the potential to be directly affected by it," Natasha began and everyone nodded in response "Okay then I'll begin properly,"

'_Back in 2010, Fury had Coulson head up a project – Project T.A.H.I.T.I – very few people knew about it. It was top secret, more top secret than you could even imagine, Hill didn't even know about it, that's how secret it was. Only the people who worked on it and Fury had any idea as to what it was. Fury wanted to be sure that should one of the Avengers or a top level agent be killed or fatally wounded, he could – essentially – bring them back to life. _

_While Clint and I were in Budapest we kept hearing rumours from other agents about a location back here called The Guest House, nobody knew what it was or even its exact location. I asked Fury about it but he refused to answer, everything was cryptic I was never told that it didn't exist but never that it did. Eventually, I gave up asking and left it alone. _

_Then – after New York – the rumours started up again and I got curious, I asked a couple of people and finally I found out. The Guest House was a test facility, they were holding the decaying body of an alien there. They were draining its bodily fluids, all of them, and using them to create serums._

_One of those serums was called GH325; that was _the one_, the one serum that could do the job. Problem was the side effects were too severe. There was a reason Fury had Coulson babysit you Stark. Coulson had quit the project and made the recommendation that it be shut down, Fury wasn't happy. He reduced Coulson's status and made him help you with the arc reactor issue instead. It wasn't until Thor turned up that Coulson was able to head up projects, particularly the ones involving the Tesseract. It kept him as far away from Project T.A.H.I.T.I. as possible, Fury didn't want Coulson to know that the project was continuing despite his recommendation. _

_After New York, after Coulson's death, Fury made the decision to use GH325 on Coulson to bring him back. Shockingly, it worked, no real side effects but Fury wiped any memories Coulson had of the serum.'_

"Oh my God!" Pepper exclaimed once Natasha had finished telling the story, putting a hand to her mouth in shock.

"So Fury lied to us, that's what you're saying?" Steve asked angrily, every feeling he had _ever _had on the subject was rising up within him, about to erupt like some sort of volcanic lava in Mt Etna, resulting in a very prominent vein pulsing one his neck.

"Technically no, Fury merely worked to change Coulson's status," Tony stated as gently as he knew how.

"And that makes it okay? Fury tried to play God and last person who did that tried to destroy New York,"

"Actually Loki was a _literal _god. Well, a Demi-god but you know he was still God of Mischief and Evil," Samantha corrected.

"That is completely beside the point. Fury did what we were working to prevent. He played God and he needs to be stopped," Steve argued.

"No Fury did what he _thought _was right to save one of the _best _agents S.H.I.E.L.D. has seen in years!" Tony retorted.

"You can't be serious. You can't expect me to believe that Fury was in the right and you want me to just accept that? You're crazy Stark," Steve stated.

Now Samantha was becoming, for lack of better wording, incredibly pissed off "Stop arguing the two of you! You're like children! Honestly. Steve my father may be many things; inappropriate, sarcastic, eccentric, not so great with social cues but he is definitely not crazy and I won't accept you calling him such. Dad, I know you have your own personal beliefs on the subject but you can't honestly expect Steve to agree with them," she reasoned as she tried to calm herself "Now apologise to each other," she ordered with a glare she'd inherited from her mother.

"Fine, Steve I'm sorry for being an asshole who expects you to follow his own beliefs," Tony said with a sigh that belonged to a teenager.

"Now Steve you need to apologise,"

"Or I could just leave," he said before walking out of the room.

"Dammit Steve!" Samantha called after him as she tried not to cry but tears flowed anyway.


	11. Put Me To Work

It had been three days. Three days since she woke up. Three days since they found out about Coulson. Three days since _he _left. Three days of tears, three days of hurt, three days of anger; anger at herself, anger art _him_, she wasn't really sure who she was angry at anymore it was all blurred. Three days; 72 hours; 4,320 minutes, 259,200 seconds however you preferred to count it that was the length of time since Steve Rogers had left Samantha Montgomery with the 'it's complicated' style of relationship status.

"Is he ever going to come back?" she asked her father on the afternoon of the third day when both Natasha and Pepper weren't in the room.

"He'd be stupid not to," was his reply accompanied by a kind smile.

"Are you saying that because you'll beat him up if he doesn't?" she asked with a slight giggle.

"No…" he slyly replied.

"Dad…" she said reproachfully, her eyebrows raised and her eyes forming a glare.

"Damn you've got your mom's glare. Fine I won't beat up your not-boyfriend-boyfriend if he doesn't come back," he relented with a sigh.

"I've screwed up haven't I?" she said with a sigh after a few moments' silence.

"No, why do you think that?"

"Because if I hadn't gotten so cocky and started interrogating that woman then she wouldn't have tried to shoot me, I wouldn't have gotten knocked out, Fury probably wouldn't have resigned and Steve wouldn't have left,"

Tony didn't know what to say to that. Clearly, Samantha was hurting to the point where she blamed herself for every single bad thing that had happened during and since the launch party. A part of him thought that Pepper was better equipped to deal with something like this. She was a woman wasn't she? But he soon realised how truly chauvinistic the thought was and he sort of hated that because he wasn't that man anymore, hadn't been since Afghanistan. Okay, maybe more like since he stopped using Palladium in the miniature arc reactor but that wasn't the point.

Seeing Samantha as upset as she was made him hurt to a degree he had never truly known before. He felt like he could _kill _Steve Rogers for just up and leaving the way he had, in fact, he probably could and he was intelligent enough and powerful enough to make it look like an accident too. But Samantha didn't want that, she was too much like her mother for that. What was it that Samantha wanted then? Comfort was an obvious thing, a distraction another. But how did he give her those things? What was that thing his mother used to say to him when he was upset as a kid? "Samantha, I'm going to tell you something my mom used to tell me when I was upset and I want you to remember it, okay?"

"Okay, she replied, slightly suspicious but still with a wry smile on her face as she agreed.

"You are beautiful, you are smart, you are kind, you are important but most importantly you are loved,"

"Okay,"

"And I also want you to know that none of this was ever truly your fault. That woman was always to launch an attack of sorts at that party anyway, all you did was change the target from Pepper to yourself. And Fury? He's so meticulous that, knowing him, this has been planned for months probably since HYDRA's coup and Steve… well… he was always going to disagree with Project T.A.H.I.T.I. whether or not you were involved," he said before changing his tone to one which seemed to be more upbeat and happy "You know what you need?"

"To know the exact location of Steve's car so I can key it?"

"Am I supposed to condone that or not?" Tony asked slightly confused.

"Probably not but seeing as you've inadvertently threatened to beat him up, you've not _really _got a leg to stand on," she said with a slight laugh.

"Well that's true. Not the point I was going to make though. No I was thinking of something that would get your mind _off _Steve like, I don't know, a party?" Tony suggested as casually as he was capable of sounding.

"No. no parties, partying got me into this bed… well… sort of and I am not having a party just to make Steve jealous. Although making him jealous would be incredibly fun,"

"Which is what a party is perfect for," Tony announced as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"No parties Dad!"

"Fine but we are talking about a man who still doesn't know how to text and it's not like you're around each other on a permanent basis,"

"So? Pass me my phone," she requested and once she got a hold of the device she started to look at her Twitter followers. Names like Katie Couric, Barbara Walters, John Oliver, and Diane Sawyer came up on the screen. Then she checked her actual Twitter feed, checking for the number of mentions she had. She was amazed. Get well messages seemed to have flooded her profile and she began to feel and enormous swell of love "Wow!" she exclaimed, her voice barely a whisper.

"What is it?" Tony asked as he leant over to look at the small screen "Yeah they've been coming through since the party. What does _Twitter _have to do with making Steve jealous? The man is barely capable of using a basic phone let alone the internet,"

"If we post a picture of you, me and Pepper seeming al smiley and happy then, in light of recent events, it's likely to make it onto the news with a 'She's out of her coma' type headline. I know for a _fact _that Steve keeps a track of the news 'cause he doesn't want to miss anything else so if we show him how happy I am without him then bam! Instant jealousy!"

"You've been in here too long haven't you?"

"Maybe a little bit,"

"You may have to wait a while to post that picture," she heard and looked up to see a balding man with kind green eyes and a kinder yet somehow still determined smile "Phil Coulson, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D." he introduced.

"I know who you are. Why are you here?" she asked politely.

"Nick Fury was hiring you as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent before his resignation under the Avengers Initiative and… in light of recent events…"

"You mean what happened with HYDRA," Samantha interrupted.

"Yeah I was…"

"Double checking my credentials. I would've thought that the incident at the party would've proved that,"

"You're quick aren't you? Anyway, some information has come to light regarding your mother, Audrey Montgomery,"

"I know who my mother is Director Coulson. What is this intel you've gained?"

"It's easier to show you," Coulson said as he handed over a file.

She stared at the file, wishing that her eyes could turn it to ashes with one mere look. She didn't know what was in the file but she did know that whatever was in the file couldn't be good or else Coulson wouldn't have handed it to her personally. Still, gingerly, she opened it. On the first page she saw a photograph of her mother. It was recent she could tell, probably taken a couple of weeks before the crash. It was taken as she was crossing the street they had once lived on. She'd crossed that road so many times throughout her lifetime that she knew the exact place it was taken. She stroked it as a last remembrance of the mother she'd known her whole childhood. Eventually, she drew the strength to read the file:

**Name: **Audrey Lucille Montgomery

**Date of Birth: **11/05/1975

**Alias(es): **Anastasia Grace Rebecca Abramovitch (1990 – 1994); The Maiden (Code Name)

**Affiliations:** HYDRA (1990 – 1997; 2001 – 2014)

**Family: **Lucille Jane Montgomery (Mother; Born 1954; Died 2001)

James Richard Montgomery (Father; Born 1950; Died 2001)

Samantha Maria Jane Montgomery (Daughter; Born 1997)

**Status: **Deceased

**Cause of Death: **Wound infection caused by post-surgical complications brought on by a car accident (suspected foul play)

After that, she slammed the file shut. She wanted to throw the file across the room, yell that it was all lies but she couldn't. Not just because she wanted to maintain an aura of professionalism in front of her prospective boss but also because there was a part of her that knew it was true. All those late nights working; the weekends Samantha would have to spend at Bridget's; the incredibly graphic and realistic spy tales she was told as bedtime stories? In a purely circumstantial way it added up to what the file told her but she'd been taught only to trust the concrete. Circumstantial evidence was designed to be twisted to suit your argument but the concrete was the thing that was necessary "Is this some kind of trick?" she asked trying to hold back tears "Did I miss some memo saying April Fools had changed from April 1st to October 10? Great one guys! Where's the hidden camera?"

"Miss Montgomery this is no joke," Coulson stated "Now I know this is difficult…"

"How could you possibly know that? How could you possibly know how difficult it is to be told that your _mother, _the woman who raised you, the woman who acted as your only friend because _no-one _at school liked you other than to use you for test answers, was the _exact _opposite of who you thought she was? Worse still, she was working for the guys who you helped to take down. That's right, you _don't _know _Director _Coulson so _don't _try and tell me you know that it's _difficult,_" she said, her eyes forming a fiery glare. If looks could kill, Coulson would be dead and buried a second time. Then, she realised her mistake, of course Coulson had an idea as to what she was going through, maybe not under the same circumstances but it was similar "I-I'm sorry that was uncalled for not to mention impertinent and inconsiderate. I mean you probably do understand what that kind of a lie can do to a person. I'm just angry and confused and I don't understand how my mother could have worked for _HYDRA _of all organisations,"

"I take it you didn't know then," Coulson said sympathetically.

"I had no idea, honestly, I thought she was a marketing executive. Guess I look real stupid now don't I?"

"Not stupid more like someone who had the wool pulled over their eyes," Tony said, giving her hand a light pat.

"Umm this thing about suspected foul play what exactly do you mean by that? I mean doesn't that imply that you guys _didn't _do it?"

"HYDRA has enemies other than S.H.I.E.L.D. yes. At this point our main suspect would be Advanced Idea Mechanics, car accidents seem to be their sort of thing," Coulson admitted.

"Is-is that all you wanted to see me about?"

"Now that you've proven a lack of knowledge about your mother's HYDRA agent status and you have, very publicly, proven that you can hold your own in a high pressure situation, I would like to personally appoint you as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent under the conditions set forth by yourself and my predecessor," Coulson announced with a kind smile on his face.

"Really? After I-I blew up at you like that?"

"Makes you even better by the standards of S.H.I.E.L.D. You can keep the file, see what you can figure from it. Think of it as your first task for S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Okay," she said feeling slightly taken aback.

"You okay?" Tony asked after Coulson left.

"I will be," was Samantha's very final reply.


End file.
